


stay alive (that would be enough)

by genovianprince



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Babies, Birth, Eggs, Good Lotor (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lotor (Voltron) Is Good Actually, Mind Control, Multi, Oviposition, Pregnancy, Rape Recovery, Shiro (Voltron) Has ADHD, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Slow Burn, Trans Lance (Voltron), Trans Male Lance (Voltron), Underwater Sex, babies resulting from rape, background Sheith - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:14:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25168297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genovianprince/pseuds/genovianprince
Summary: Lance, while under the control of the mind-fruit from the Baku dragon, gives his body over to it, becoming a host of its eggs. Too frightened by the experience, he doesn't know they're viable until it's too late to do anything about them - they're about to hatch. With the help of the rest of Team Voltron, he tries to be the best parent he can be, with a lot of bumps along the way.Then Lotor enters the picture, and Lance finds himself tripping over air because of the extremely hot alien prince. The kids discover their mischievous side and start plotting to get Lance and Lotor together. What could possibly go wrong?
Relationships: Lance/Baku Dragon, Lance/Lotor (Voltron)
Comments: 69
Kudos: 194





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The art commissioned for this fic was provided by the amazingly talented jaspurrlock. Thank you so much for doing a such a fantastic job!

“Lance, I think we should stay here. Forever,” Hunk said dreamily.

“Okay,” Lance replied, not really feeling anything beyond the safety and warmth of the capital city. There was something niggling in the back of his mind, but the longer he ignored it, the quieter it got, until he was just floating on the great feeling.

Queen Luxia told Hunk to go sleep, but she had a task for Lance. A Very Important Task, she told him, and he smiled.

“Oh yeah? What’s up? What am I gonna do? Suuuurely it can’t be anything too difficult, right?”

“Not at all. I just need you to swim out to the very center of our garden and gather a few fruits. Poor Hunk is too exhausted, but you look very up to the task,” she said, smiling ever-so-sweetly.

Lance smiled back. Or had he ever stopped smiling? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t really care. “Yeah, of course, Queen Luxia. Easy peasy. No problemo. I can do…. Whatever you need me to do. Since you’re being so accommodating and all. Be back soon!”

He swam off toward the garden, humming happily to himself. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, what do we do, we swim, swim, swim,” he sang under his breath, “gonna keep swimming, and then pick some fruit, yeah yeah, cuz we just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.”

He floated more then swam the closer he got, the feeling of _safe and warm_ effusing through his body. It made it super hard to focus… Focus on… what? Oh, yeah, impressing the queen. Fruit. He swam with renewed vigor for a few moments, and then the focus faded again and he floated in the garden, feeling fuzzy, but uncaring. Safe and warm, what else mattered?

The face of the dragon startled him for a moment, but it didn’t do much otherwise. He was safe and warm and the feeling prevailed over the initial need to flee. If he was safe and warm, this dragon certainly wouldn’t cause him any harm. In fact… It was _really pretty._

The dragon seemed to snort, and Lance realized he said that aloud. Whatever, the dragon deserved to know. It gave him a grin and then it nudged its face between Lance’s legs and he gasped, a thrill running through him.

“W...wait,” he stuttered, “you want… with me? But you’re so… big. Not that you’re not pretty still or that’s bad! I’m just… really, really small.”

The dragon stared into his eyes and Lance heard it. In his head. _Telepathic dragon._

 _“I want you, pretty air-breather,”_ it said to him. _“I can do what I need to make sure I don’t kill you. After all, you’re here to ensure the survival of my species. Be rather stupid if I killed you. I may never be able to breathe the air, but my young will benefit from a parent like you.”_

Lance needed to stop calling the dragon “the dragon”. Maybe Baku. Since it was the Baku Garden. Yeah. He slowly nodded at Baku, not really processing any of what was being said. He knew he’d been called pretty, at least. That was nice.

Baku grinned and shifted and suddenly, from inside the garden, there seemed like there was a lot less… garden. Though he supposed there would be almost no difference on the outside. Baku reappeared, looking much smaller, but still rather large. More like… Sasquatch sized, if Lance had to guess.

_“I want you. Is this size acceptable?”_

Lance grinned lazily. “Well, then you can have me. Yeah, this… should be fine. You’ll be, like, still big, but not break me big. Sex with an alien dragon… _Wow.”_

He supposed he should do something about his pants. He whacked a button on his arm plate and a small blade protruded from it. With that, he sliced open a hole in the paladin suit near his crotch. It would self-repair in a few minutes, as long as there weren’t any intrusions. It was made that way for emergency bathroom breaks, or emergency first aid, or a quickie. God, Lance hoped this wouldn’t be very quick.

Baku nuzzled at his neck and Lance groaned, tilting his head back. It was weird, considering the… Weirdo four-mouth thing it had going on or whatever, but the nibbles felt super good, and he still felt safe and warm, so it didn’t matter. Baku used its tail to wrap around Lance’s torso and hold him in place, and then nudged his legs apart.

Lance glanced down and groaned again in excitement, seeing the large cock slip from its sheath inside Baku. It looked _amazing._ He wanted it in him so badly.

As if reading his mind, Baku rubbed the tip against Lance’s folds and then slowly started pushing in. Getting right to the point. Lance was… slightly disappointed, but then Baku slid in fully and his eyes rolled back into his head as he moaned loudly.

“Yes, God, yes. Feels so good,” he gasped. There was some kind of strange texture on Baku’s cock that felt super good, whatever it was. Baku pulled out and thrust in again and the strangely rough texture felt _sofuckinggoodahhh!_ And Baku kept nibbling so strangely on Lance’s neck, everything about this, so strange, but felt so good… He gave into the feeling, going limp and just letting the Baku have its way with him.

He moaned in delight with every thrust, head rolling back as Baku became more and more forceful, getting deeper every time. He reached down to stimulate his dick with the barest amount of thought he still had left in his head, everything consumed by _pleasure_ and _safe_ and _warm._

Baku’s dick began leaking a strange substance inside him, and Lance thought Baku had come, but no, if anything, it was getting even stiffer. Lance gasped when he realized he was feeling _something_ travelling up Baku’s cock.

_Eggs._

Oh, he’d read about that in erotica, but to have it actually happen? _Awesome._ He didn’t care about the fact that his body was opening up to receive them. All he knew was the _stretch_ and how good it felt. One by one, they slipped up Baku’s cock and into Lance and he came each time with a tremble. Seven. Seven eggs. Inside him. After fucking an alien sea dragon.

He felt _so goddamn good,_ he thought, even as he shook and cried from the overstimulation.

Then, Baku released him and pulled free, and Lance whimpered. Baku licked the top of Lance’s head.

_“You did well. You will bear my young nicely. Go back to your friend, where you will stay safe and warm, until it's time for the eggs to be freed.”_

Lance nodded lazily, the time he just spent with the dragon already floating away in his memory. With a rush of currents, Baku resized himself and sent Lance spinning out back towards the castle. An escort of guards led him back to where Hunk was staying and Lance settled in with a long, content sigh.

He didn’t remember anything until he was finally back in the castle, in his own bed, and dreamed.

*

When Lance woke up, he was shivering, and he realized he’d fallen off the bed and was tangled up in the sheets.

“Fuck,” he cursed, pulling them away and standing up on unsteady legs. _Oh, God._ Unsteady legs. The soreness. And.

And something strange, sitting in his cunt and his pants.

He rushed to the bathroom and first, threw up. Second, pulled down his pants and gasped as the rest of the eggs fell out of him in a rush.

One had been sitting innocently in his pants, already fallen out. Three more had been behind it, blocked up.

Frantically, he tried to recall how many eggs had been deposited. But all he had was the hazy feeling of _safety_ and _warmth_ and… The sexual pleasure. He turned and threw up again.

How could he think that? He’d been… God, he’d been _raped._ By some freakish alien dragon monster. How could he think back on it and feel anything but disgust? He sure felt it now. Disgusted with himself.

He threw the eggs in the toilet and flushed it, going to brush his teeth. He was pretty sure he was fine, at least. He didn’t think anything had tore, and the eggs had come out. He was fine. Yeah. Nothing to worry about. No reason to tell anyone. Ugh. He felt like the worst scum for thinking it, but he worried that even if he did tell, he’d get called a slut because he tended to throw himself at aliens anyway.

He knew it wasn’t very likely, but still, he’d rather melt through the floor than tell anyone. He was fine. He _would_ be fine.

*

Everyone noticed when Lance’s flirting almost disappeared. He just… didn’t feel super up to hitting on aliens anymore. They didn’t stop being interesting and beautiful. He just couldn’t handle the thought of something like that happening again. He didn’t want to get close to anyone he wasn’t living with on the castle anymore. Sometimes, he still did it, but it was less in-your-face than before. More done out of a habit than any real want to.

“Okay, I gotta ask,” Hunk said as they ate dinner together one night, “Lance, did someone reject you pretty harshly or something? You’ve been, uh, less…”

“Less flirty,” Pidge finished, pushing her glasses up her nose and grinning at Lance, “So what happened? Flirted too hard with one of those mermaids and they threw a crab at your face?”

Lance scoffed. “No way, they totally loved me!”

“Anything that improves Lance’s behavior is just fine by me,” Keith added, smirked at Lance, “I mean, if it takes a crab to the face to make him shut up, we can totally get some more crabs.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “There were no crabs,” he said irritably, stabbing at his food goo, “I just… I dunno, okay? I started… feeling icky about what I was doing, so I stopped.”

True enough.

Shiro smiled. “Well hey, I’m glad you’re maturing a little,” he said, “Really. I’m proud of you, Lance.”

Oh.

Lance really couldn’t decide if that made him feel better or worse. He wasn’t doing it out of a sense of betterment of self or whatever, but… he guessed it _was_ having that kind of effect. He’d ended up being more genuine with people, and… Unintended good consequences?

He smiled slightly at Shiro, because either way, hearing something like that come out of Shiro’s mouth meant a lot.

“Thanks, Shiro. I appreciate that.”

“I appreciate it too,” Allura chimed in with a giggle, “It’s very nice not having one of the paladins haranguing me about a date.”

Lance stuck his tongue out at her before he thought better of it. 

Pidge gasped dramatically. “Such disrespect for the Princess! Allura, what are you going to do about that?”

Allura just laughed, rolling her eyes. “I’ll take playful disrespect over romantic and sexual disrespect any day.”

Lance’s hand did some kind of spasm and he flung food goo into his face before he managed to drop it. _Oh my God._ The implications of what he’d been doing fully crashed down on him then, and it made him sick to his stomach.

He didn’t realize how quickly he was breathing and how silent he’d been until Pidge gently laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Lance? You okay?”

Lance flinched a little as he came back to the moment, wiping his face off with a napkin.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just… I’m so, so sorry, Princess,” Lance said softly, looking her in the eye. “I acted so horriblorific.”

Allura’s cheeks pinkened and she nodded. “I… thank you, Lance. I appreciate that.”

“...Okay, dude, I love you, but… _horriblorific?”_ Hunk questioned, eyebrows raised.

“Language is hard, okay!” Lance replied, grateful for the distraction as he laughed.

He shoved the worsening thoughts to the back of his mind. He’d be fine.


	2. Chapter 2

Lance… was not fine.

First of all, Shiro disappeared, and they couldn’t form Voltron anymore, so that was. Just. Fucking fantastic. 

Second of all, he just really felt shitty. So many parts of him hated what the Baku had done to him, but other parts that he hated listening to made unfortunately good points about it. One point was that he deserved it — if he hadn’t been so flirty with the mermaids in the first place, the dragon probably wouldn’t have picked him to… do that to. He didn’t think it would’ve gone for Hunk, either, because Hunk wasn’t nearly as loose as Lance was.

Another ugly point his brain made was that… After it happened to him, he became a better person. He stopped being an annoying ass to Keith so much, he stopped flirting with Allura (and other aliens) so much, he toned himself down and became a lot more genuine with the team and more like his real self instead of playing up certain parts… It had such a good effect on his relationships, ultimately, because he became a little more subdued. And all that helped him feel  _ really _ better about himself instead of playing it up to hide the fact that he hated himself.

Arguably, it’d been a good thing it happened. But fuck, he really hated the part of him that thought that, even if he thought it made good points, because it still  _ hurt. _ He'd still been horribly violated. He really just… didn’t know what to believe, and felt like he had no one to turn to.

He really missed Earth. At least he could get a therapist on Earth.

Third of all, Coran made them all undergo health scans the day after Shiro disappeared, before they began their search. Lance went first, but Coran asked him to hang back and wait for everyone else to be done before they talked.

Lance tapped his foot on the floor, hands shoved into his pockets, as he frowned intensely at the wall. What could Coran need from him? Was his hormone implant needing replacement or something? Ugh, he hated waiting.

When Coran finally beckoned him back inside, he breathed a sigh of relief that the waiting was over, and breathed in the new stress of wondering what was going on. But he put on his easygoing smile and shot finger guns at Coran.

“What’s up, Coran? Did my hormone implant thing run out already or something? Is my body just too strong for your alien tech?” he joked.

Coran’s deathly serious face made him drop the act.

“Lance… when did you have sex, and what with?” Coran asked, “I noticed something… worrying about your health scans, and I need to know what it was so I can help.”

Oh, God.

Oh, no.

Lance sat down hard. “I… I never had sex,” he said softly, curling in on himself. “It wasn’t… I didn’t…”

Coran’s face shifted to concern and he sat next to Lance. “You didn’t want it,” he said quietly.

Lance shook his head, turning away as the tears filled his eyes. “It took me and I didn’t… I couldn’t even…” He let out a broken sob. “It was the… the Baku. I couldn’t even fight. It just…  _ controlled me. _ It made me  _ want it, _ Coran.”

Coran dropped a hand on Lance’s shoulder and squeezed gently. “I’m sorry. Especially for the news I have for you now.”

Lance swallowed, rubbing at his eyes and turning back to face Coran. “Don’t tell me I got an STD or something.”

“...Well, depending on your perspective, I suppose, this could count,” Coran mused, “But this really isn’t the time for that debate. Lance, do you remember it leaving eggs inside you?”

Lance froze. “I thought they all came out,” he whispered, turning ashen.

Coran shook his head. “There’s three still there. They’ve been incubating this whole time. According to the scans, they… They’re nearly ready to leave incubation and hatch.”

Lance sprung up from his seat and rushed to a bin, puking up what felt like his entire digestive system.

“No,” he whispered, voice cracking as he let himself fall limp by the bin, “No, Coran, please say it’s not true, I can’t… This… I can’t be a dad. Not in the middle of all this war stuff. And with Shiro gone and…” He hiccuped and started sobbing.  _ No. No, no, no. _

Coran knelt next to him after a few moments, cleaning Lance’s face with a cool, damp cloth and helping him into a sitting position. Lance felt himself pulled against Coran’s shoulder and he kept crying.

“I didn’t want… I can’t… I never thought…” He gasped between sobs, voice mostly gurgles. Coran shushed him gently, rocked him, rubbed his back. Just… sat there and soothed him through his breakdown.

Eventually, it came to a halt, and Lance pulled away, sniffling. Coran handed him a handkerchief and Lance gave him a weak smile as he blew his nose and wiped his face.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Don’t be,” Coran said, standing and wincing slightly as his bones cracked. “The least I can do is be there for you right now.”

Lance stood as well, hugging himself again. “I never thought that… Like… When I imagined being a dad? It was always, like, after I got married. And… not after… Something like that. Or even a mutual one night stand where I ended up a single dad. And… definitely not… while in the middle of a war.” 

He shrank in on himself more. “What am I going to do, Coran? We don’t know where these guys actually belong. What planet, I mean. We can’t exactly adopt them out. And, like, we have allies now? But how many people out there are willing to just take three weird little sea dragon-and-human kids with no idea of what to expect as they’re growing up? And then like, what if word gets out they have a  _ Paladin’s kids? _ And the Galra go after them because, like, that’s good trading collateral? Or like ransom or whatever? I don’t even know what’s going to happen, if they get born and they’re too deformed to live or anything because, like, alien genetics? I don’t know anything about them! I’m not… I don’t know what to do…”

Coran pulled Lance into another tight hug. “Whatever you choose to do… Whatever happens… Lance, you have a team. We’ll be here for you. If they survive, if you choose to keep them, we’ll make it work. If you decide they need to live on a proper planet, I’m sure the Olkari would be happy to help. They have oceans, if the kids will need oceans. We’ll figure it out with you.”

Lance sniffed, burying his face in Coran’s shoulder again. “Thanks, Coran.” He sighed. “How am I going to tell everyone else? This is so fucked up… Like…how can you be so sure they won’t...” His hands tightened in his grip on Coran’s clothes.

“I’ve known Allura all her life,” Coran said softly, “And the other Paladins… I’ve not known you all that long, but I know that your Hunk and Pidge will be behind you no matter what. Keith may need some time… Allura might as well. But they’ll be here for you, as will I. We’re family now. Even to those little ones.”

Lance trembled for a moment, swallowing back another round of crying. “Thanks, Coran. You’re the best.” He pulled back, taking some deep breaths. “I still don’t know how to tell them, but… At least I’m less worried.”

Coran smiled softly. “It’s what I’m here for. Do you want me to help you tell them? I rather think you should tell them… well, immediately. According to the scans, they’re ready any day now… Better to tell them before the eggs just pop?”

Lance grimaced. “They won’t just… hatch inside me and then rip out of my body all fucking, like, Twilight baby vampire style, right?”

“....I don’t know the reference, but no, you should just… birth the eggs, and they’ll hatch within minutes. That’s what’s most likely to happen.”

Lance relaxed with a relieved sigh. “Okay, that’s… best case scenario, yay. Um… Maybe we can call a meeting or something? I… I don’t know where everyone went after that, I… I’m still really scared to do this.”

Coran nodded. “I understand. But we’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. I’ll get on the speakers and say we need everyone down here to… discuss a health issue?”

Lance shrugged. “I guess that’s close enough. Without saying it over the speakers directly.”

“Just a tick, then.” Coran pushed a few buttons on the wall, and then over the speakers, said, “Could everyone please come back to the med bay? We have a health issue that needs to be discussed.”

It was only a few moments before Hunk burst back into the room, beelining for Lance. “Oh my God! Are you okay? Please say you’re okay, you’re not dying, please!” he begged, squeezing Lance in a tight hug.

“Hunk, you are  _ literally _ squeezing the shit out of me,” Lance wheezed, “If I die it’s because you’re hugging me too hard!”

Hunk dropped Lance immediately, and Lance finally got a look at his already-crying face.

“I’m okay,” Lance said, hugging Hunk more gently, “You just, uh… gotta be really gentle right now, okay?”

“Okay,” Hunk said, sniffling, and hugging Lance again, much more carefully. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t, like, listening at the door or anything? I just was worried because Coran asked you to stay back, and I didn’t want to overhear anything, but I wanted to be close in case you needed me, and then when Coran came over the system, I freaked out.”

“I’m okay. I really promise. I’m not dying. It’s just… something that should be said once everyone’s here,” Lance said quietly.

Hunk pulled back. “Okay. Oh, no, you’re not space sick, are you? Am I gonna get infected?”

Lance sighed. “Hunk, buddy, I love you, but I just said I’m fine. Can you please wait until everyone’s here?”

Hunk nodded, looking away anxiously. “Yeah, sorry, I just — I worry, you know me. I’m a worrier. I’m the Mom Friend.”

Lance snickered. “I know, believe me, I know. I’m just asking you to trust me for a few minutes here, okay?”

Hunk nodded again. “Yeah. I got you, bud.”

Lance smiled. “Cool.”

It only took a few doboshes for everyone to trickle back in and Lance took in a deep breath.

“You, uh. All might want to be sitting down for this,” Lance said, sitting down himself.

“What’s going on, Lance?” Allura asked with an inquisitive look as they all sat around the table. “You’re not sick, are you?”

Lance shook his head. “No, it’s, um…” He took a deep breath and groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. “I’m just gonna jump straight to the point because if I don’t I’m just going to ramble on and on and never get to it because I’m too nervous and oh my God, I’m pregnant.”

“What,” said Hunk.

“What the fuck,” said Pidge.

Allura gasped.

Keith blinked.

Lance smiled nervously. “Yeah, uh… Crazy, right?”

Keith growled, and Lance’s throat suddenly felt very dry as he turned to look at Keith.

“How could you have been so irresponsible?” Keith shouted, and Lance shrank in his seat, “Are you fucking  _ serious, _ Lance? You had unprotected sex with a random alien in the middle of a war and got pregnant? What the hell is wrong with you?”

Hunk, seeing Lance’s expression, slapped the table in front of Keith. “Keith,  _ shut up and let him talk.” _

Lance swallowed. “I didn’t want it,” he whispered, words punctuated with sharp breaths and barely contained sobs. “It was… back on the mermaid planet… the Baku dragon thing and… his mind control… I didn't want any of it to happen… He made me… take his eggs… I didn’t know any had… Stuck around.”

Keith went very pale, covering the lower half of his face with a hand. “Oh, fuck,” he whispered.

“That’s kinda what happened, yeah,” Lance joked immediately, cringing as soon as he finished saying it. “Sorry, sorry, morbid humor.” He rubbed at his face, trying to calm down.

Keith looked away. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “You didn’t deserve that.”

“Thank you,” Lance replied just as quietly. He paused for a moment longer, then kept talking. “I know we’re all under a lot of stress right now. Some more than others. But it’s too late for me to… do anything about these kids. There’s three of them. Coran says they’ll… Uh… be born and then hatch pretty much any day now. And… I think it’s best that… we keep them on the castle-ship for now.”

Allura inhaled sharply. “Yes, that makes sense. If word got out that one of the Paladins has children…”

“Better to keep it all between us,” Pidge said, nodding. “No word to get out.”

Hunk scooted his chair closer to Lance, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “You sure? I mean, we’re all gonna be aunts and uncles, of course, but… you’re gonna be the only dad.”

Lance nodded, leaning into Hunk’s side. “I’m more terrified of this than the Galra Empire, but yeah. I can’t just… leave them somewhere. At least we have the tech and stuff to help figure out… whatever might be happening with them as they grow up. Because nobody else knows anything about the Baku species or the Human species. So like… At least we’re equipped for the Human half and can decipher the Baku half.”

Keith offered a small smile. “I can at least relate to growing up half alien and having no answers to that half. At least these guys will grow up in a place where they’re allowed to know and possibly get research on themselves.”

Lance smiled back. “Exactly! See, you’re already a great uncle, Keith. We’re gonna be fine.”

Keith snorted. “Yeah, sure. Great uncle. Right. And my real name is Leeroy Jenkins.”

Lance chuckled at that. “Okay, Leeroy. Gotta say, strange name to pick? But cool. Not any stranger than Keith, I guess.”

“Okay, good feeling gone,” Keith deadpanned.

Hunk was at a loss for a moment, before he finally snickered. “Okay, guys, enough joking around. Uh… Is there anything we should do to prepare?”

Lance blinked. “I hadn’t gotten that far yet,” he said sheepishly, “I figured I’d better tell you guys before I just… forgot to, until the kids were, uh, born. That’d be a lot harder to figure out then. But yeah, um… At least we all have each other on this, so we can think about all the stuff.”

Pidge was already furiously typing away at her laptop. “We’ve got your back, dude.”

Lance smiled, feeling very loved. “Thanks, guys.” He just hoped nothing would go wrong with the kids.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: This is the birth chapter! And you get to meet the kids!

“Fuck,” Lance cursed, curling up in his seat as a cramp rippled through his abdomen. “We’re not getting beaten around that badly, what the… Oh,  _ fuck.” _

“Lance?” Hunk’s alarmed voice came over the comms and Lance grimaced.

“I think I’m in labor,” he admitted. “We gotta finish this fight quick. Thank God the nursery is done.”

Keith’s low growl thundered in Lance’s ears, and a few moments later, the Red Lion lit up like a fireball and crashed through a dozen of the Galra fighting cruisers. 

Blue’s dashboard lit up and Lance smirked, pulling the lever she was telling him to. He followed up Keith’s fire attack with Blue’s ice blast, solidifying most of the ships.

“Whoo! Suck on  _ that, _ Empire,” he taunted, then groaned as another contraction hit him. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

They made quick work of the rest of the fight and wormholed away, Yellow towing Blue while Lance curled up in his seat, shivering.

“This hurts,” he groaned, “And feels really weird.”

“Well, it’s not exactly a normal human pregnancy, is it?” Pidge chimed in as their Lions landed.

Lance stood up as soon as Blue was grounded, patting her dashboard. “Thanks, baby Blue.” He took a deep breath and walked down her mouth, making a beeline for the elevator. Straight to the medbay, where Coran had set up a birthing tub. Since they  _ were  _ sea dragons, after all, being born and hatched in the water was their best bet for healthy younglings.

Hunk sprinted and caught up with him, laying a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “I’m right here with you. Do you want me in the room?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah. Please,” Lance replied, “I need my best friend.”

Hunk squeezed Lance’s shoulder at the same time a new contraction hit him, and he groaned, leaning into Hunk. 

“Fuck. I really wish I had the gel stuff that that evil thing’s dick had,” Lance muttered, “It numbed me when it was opening up my insides to put these fuckin’ things in, be cool to have it to get them out.”

Hunk really didn’t know what to say, so he just hummed an agreeing sound and helped Lance stagger over to the tub where Coran was already waiting, dressed in medical scrubs.

“Alright, everything off, quickly,” he said brusquely.

Lance froze for a moment, swallowing, and then exhaled slowly. Hunk helped him pull off his armor, then the suit beneath it, and couldn’t believe it, but he was grateful to the next contraction for hitting him at that moment, so he could be distracted from feeling weird about being naked. Hunk made worried sounds as he set Lance in the tub and knelt next to him, holding his hand.

“I gotcha, bud,” he whispered.

Lance smiled weakly. “Thanks.”

Coran reached out and squeezed Lance’s shoulder. “You’ll be fine. The labor shouldn’t be too intensive, at least.”

“Some humans back on Earth can get stuck in it for like, thirty-six vargas, so. I’m really glad these aren’t normal human babies,” Lance joked.

Coran paled. “Yes, yes, quite… Should only be a few minutes, once they start coming out.” He turned pink. “Er, don’t be alarmed if… they feel… well,  _ good, _ when they start exiting your body. Perfectly natural.”

Lance turned red. “Okay, orgasming in front of a space alien uncle guy and my best friend while giving literal birth wasn’t anywhere near being on my bucket list, but I guess that’s gonna happen. Thanks for the warning?”

Coran coughed lightly, and Lance turned to Hunk, instead. 

“Don’t be weird about it?” he said, half-pleading and half-asking.

“Course not,” Hunk said with a soft smile, “I mean, the whole thing is really weird, but it’d be like, really mean to treat  _ you _ weird over it.”

Lance snorted, and then yelped as another contraction hit. “Jesus fucking Christ,” he groaned, “Is it time yet or do I just get to sit here, wet and naked and in pain, for the next few vargas?!”

Coran wisely chose not to answer, only remaining nearby out of medical necessity.

Lance sighed, squeezing Hunk’s hand gently. “This fucking sucks.”

Hunk also wisely chose to stay silent, just holding Lance’s hand. Lance’s grip tightened as the next contraction hit him, and, oh, God, he could feel the eggs starting to slip out. Oh,  _ shit, _ Coran had been right. He choked back a moan, embarrassed, as his head tilted back.

“Fuck,” he breathed, toes curling. “Shit.” He wondered if the eggs had been this big going in. The memories of it were hazy at best, but there were certain things he knew triggered a flashback. He had bits and pieces of the puzzle, but not the whole thing, and he wondered if he would ever know it all.

He whimpered and gasped as the first one slowly tumbled out, leaving him shaking with pleasure and embarrassment. Ugh, why oh why did it have to fucking feel like that? The eggs weren’t smooth like chicken eggs or anything from Earth, either. They had a ridged texture that heightened his little problem. His grip tightened on Hunk’s hand again as he fought against another moan. The second egg had started coming free. It was turned slightly differently from the first and as it rolled all the way out, Lance couldn’t stop a high-pitched moan. He clapped his free hand over his mouth, tears gathering in his eyes. He hated this. He hated this  _ so fucking much. _

There wasn’t even a  _ little  _ break between the eggs this time, as the third one started to come down. Oh, no, it was larger than the other two. Lance couldn’t hold back as he moaned, back arching. His toes curled again and he pushed, jolting as he came and the egg finally tumbled out to join its siblings in the water.

“Fuck,” he croaked, wiping at his eyes.

Hunk brushed some of the hair out of Lance’s face. “You did good,” he whispered, “I’m sorry that, uh… well, y’know. But your kids are here. Coran’s looking over them now, making sure the eggs aren’t cracked or anything that could indicate any problems before hatching.” Hunk smiled. “You’re almost a whole dad.”

“As opposed to half a dad?” Lance joked, grateful for the easy banter. 

“I mean… I guess.” Hunk chuckled, letting go of Lance’s hand. “Do you want me to get your trunks?”

Lance nodded, and Hunk retrieved Lance’s swim trunks from the nearby drawer. Lance pulled them on quickly and then finally looked over at Coran again, who had thankfully followed Lance’s lead on minimal interaction during all that.

“Are they okay?” he asked anxiously.

“They appear all fine,” Coran said easily, removing his hands from the water, “Now we just wait for them to hatch.”

Lance sighed in relief. “Good. That’s good. It shouldn’t take long, right?”

The first egg cracked. Lance immediately turned to watch them like a hawk. Slowly, slowly, it cracked more and more, and Lance saw the little mouth tapping away at the shell. With it finally broken slightly, the little creature started ripping at the egg with its claws until it finally broke free and swam from the shell straight for the surface.

Lance swished a hand nearby, ready to help, and it zoomed over to Lance’s hand, crawling atop and then poking its head from the water, giving Lance a curious look.

“Moma?” it croaked, and Lance gasped.

“Y-Yeah. Um,  _ Papa, _ actually,” he said absently, using his other hand to stroke its head very gently.

“Papa,” it repeated, and Lance nodded, smiling brightly even as tears once again filled his eyes. 

Oh, man. He was a dad. And there wasn’t really any denying it. Alien genetics were still pretty beyond him, and this first little guy hardly looked like Baku at all. He wondered if it was a quirk of the species or something. He looked more like… Mushu from Mulan. Except for the kelp running down his back. Mushu as a size comparison worked pretty well. The little dragon was bigger than Lance had expected. But… there was a tuft of brown human hair on the top of his head, and it definitely had eyes that were blue like Lance’s. And his scales were a soft, shimmery green.

“Papa,” it said again, “Who am I?”

Oh, okay, starting with the big philosophical questions.

“You’re… Ramen,” Lance decided. Start out slow. Names were good.

He could feel Hunk’s burning stare on the side of his face. What! He looked like a noodle!

The other two eggs started to hatch, and Ramen gasped, slipping back into the water. He started helping one of them claw out as soon as its little head appeared, and then fluttered around the third egg while the second dragon —  _ his second baby  _ — swam up to Lance’s open hand and clung to it, cautiously sticking her head from the water.

“Papa?” she said softly, tilting her head.

“Yes. Hello, Soba,” Lance said, petting her mass of messy hair gently. Soba had a much more mop-head puff of hair, where Ramen had a more sleek tuft. And she was pink-scaled like the Baku.

She smiled at him and chirruped cutely. “Thank you, Papa.”

Lance felt a lump in his throat. “Of course.”

Y’know, he really hadn’t expected this level of cognitive ability so soon after their birth, but it must’ve been an evolutionary thing on their father’s side, he mused, only startling slightly when a cobalt blue dragon with much longer hair started climbing up his chest.

“Hi, Papa,” she said quietly, freezing when she realized she’d been noticed.

“Hi, Udon,” he replied, switching to pet her.

Ramen swam back up and Lance sat back so he floated, and they could all rest on his chest.

“It’s lovely to meet you all,” he said softly.

Soba snuggled in. “We’re happy to meet you too, Papa,” she said, yawning. 

Lance sympathy-yawned.

“Okay, so…” Hunk started, then stopped, rubbing his arm. “They’re really here. Now what?”

“Does anything hurt?” Coran asked, leaning over to look at the dragons.

The three hissed and curled up tightly together, tucking up under Lance’s neck.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Lance said softly, “It’s okay, kids. That’s your uncle Coran. He needs to make sure that you’re okay after hatching. I trust him with my life. He’s very good.”

Ramen lifted his head and glanced from Lance to Coran cautiously, then slipped from the pile and swam to the edge, looking up at Coran.

“You have fur on your face,” he said bluntly, and Lance stifled a laugh.

Coran just grinned. “It’s called a mustache!”

Ramen nodded. “Mmkay. I’m fine, Uncle C’ran!” He swam back over and buried himself in the cuddle pile again.

Soba lifted her head. “Me too.”

Udon just grumbled, and Lance took that to mean she was fine.

“This is amazing,” he whispered, wishing he could hug them. They were so small, though, and he didn’t want to hurt them.

He floated for a few more moments, just enjoying them being so close.

“Okay, kids,” he whispered after a little bit, “I really need to get out of the bath, okay? I can take you guys to your room. And you can meet more people, if you want.”

“Aw, you didn’t even introduce them to me,” Hunk said.

Lance laughed a little and gathered the kids in his arms before sitting up.

“Who’s that?” Soba asked, looking at Hunk.

“That’s my best friend. Your uncle Hunk,” Lance answered. “He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met in my entire life.”

“Aww, duuude!” Hunk cooed, blushing, “You don’t have to talk me up so much!”

“Yeah I do! It’s just the plain and simple truth,” Lance insisted.

Ramen fearlessly leapt out of Lance’s arms and curled up around Hunk’s neck. “Hi, Uncle Hunk.”

Hunk startled a bit, but gently petted the top of Ramen’s head. “Hi, Ramen.”

Soba followed, and Udon stayed behind, snuggling deeper into Lance’s arms. Lance held her close while Hunk started bonding with the kids and stifled a laugh when they started asking him what everything was. Oh, the joys of the “what” and “why” stage. 

He kind of wished they’d been more like actual babies, but if they were already slightly self-sufficient and able to communicate, that made things easier. Still… he hoped they didn’t grow up  _ too _ fast. He wanted to be a parent properly, since they were here. He stood up and put Udon back in the water just long enough to step out and dry off so he wouldn’t drip water everywhere, then scooped her back up. His legs felt a little jelly-like, but he wasn’t really in that much pain or anything. So different from everything he’d ever expected in having kids.

“Okay, are you all ready to go see where you’re gonna live?” he asked, grinning.

“Yes!” Soba shouted, slapping her hands against Hunk’s chest excitedly. “Let’s go, Uncle Hunk!”

Lance snorted and grinned even wider. “Sorry you got roped into this, Hunk.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I love kids. And they’re really sweet,” Hunk said, laughing as Ramen rubbed his head under Hunk’s chin.

They opened the door to leave and then jumped back in surprise.

“Oh,” Allura said, looking like a deer in the headlights, “Sorry, we were just… worried.”

Udon shrank in Lance’s arms and Lance held her tighter, putting her nearer to his face.

“It’s okay, Princess. Everyone’s fine,” he said quietly, smiling, “This is Udon. Hunk has Ramen and Soba.”

Ramen waved.

Pidge leaned closer to Hunk to get a good look. “Hard to believe they’re really yours.”

Lance gave her a flat look and then turned to Keith, who just looked… stoic.

“D’you want to meet them?” he asked in a near-whisper.

Keith swallowed nervously and stepped forward to Lance as Allura and Pidge fawned over Ramen and Soba with Hunk. Lance supposed they’d inherited his social butterfly-ness.

Udon rubbed her head under Lance’s chin and very, very cautiously peeked out at Keith, who still stood a fair distance away, looking about as wary as she did.

“Udon, this is Uncle Keith,” he murmured, stepping closer, “I think you two will get along well. He’s very quiet, like you. Would you like to be held by him?”

Keith’s eyes flashed with fear for a moment. “Lance, I… I don’t know. I don’t want to drop her. Or make her do it or something.”

Udon tilted her head. “I can hold on,” she said, “You seem…nice. And quiet.”

Keith stepped closer and awkwardly held out his hands, not sure what to do, but Udon took the lead and carefully left Lance’s arms to crawl into Keith’s. With a happy sigh, she settled in comfortably.

Lance grinned as Keith went with it, holding Udon close and staring at her in awe.

“She’s wonderful,” he whispered, blushing a bit as Udon opened an eye to look at him and smile.

Ramen’s loud yawn interrupted everyone and Lance laughed quietly. 

“Okay, guys, it’s time for me to get the kids to bed. It’s been a long day for them. And me. I’m gonna take a nap, too,” he said, reaching out to take Ramen and Soba back from Allura and Pidge.

Keith held onto Udon for a few moments longer and then passed her back to Lance.

“See you guys for dinner,” Lance said, walking off.

“Sleep well,” Hunk called after them.


	4. Chapter 4

The next few weeks were a blur of parenting his kids and saving the world. Not being able to form Voltron was so bad. Even with the Blade of Marmora.

Lance really, really liked them all. Working with them was super nice. Lance had been scared when his children had disobeyed him and ran up to Kolivan and climbed all over him, but Kolivan had taken it like a champ. Didn’t even flinch. Just calmly answered their questions, at least until Lance had been able to usher them away, because… Kolivan really had no idea how to rein in some of the things about war when talking to children, and Lance really didn’t want his kids traumatized so early in life.

The Lion swap really hurt, though. He loved Blue to bits, and so did his kids. Blue was so good with them, too. Red… Red was nice, but it was clear she was mostly annoyed by them. She tolerated them when Lance took them for rides so they could get a break from the monotony of the castleship, and remained kind to them, but Lance could usually feel her annoyance in the back of his mind. She really wasn’t a kid-friendly kitty.

Udon took a shine to the Black Lion and asked Keith for rides on occasion. He was happy to give them, especially while searching for Shiro. She was still quiet and reserved for the most part, but as soon as Lance taught her about theater and the arts, she’d found her passion. She’d be a great actor, Lance thought. She really put her heart and soul into the emotion of playing a part or writing them. It was how she was able to express herself.

Ramen and Soba, on the other hand, fell in love with Pidge and the Green Lion. They were both tech heads like her; Lance didn’t really understand any of it, but he listened to them when they told him about their day with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. They were definitely very social and never shut up like their dad, as Hunk  _ loved _ to tease.

They were growing up so fast. In only a month they’d gone from just about as thin as a pencil to almost as thick as Lance’s forearm, and up to his waist in height (not counting the tails, which were nearly just as long). If he had to put their development in human years, he’d call them nearly ten.

Already so grown up. He knew back on Earth people talked about how fast kids grew up, but he doubted they’d ever meant it like this. He chuckled to himself at the thought and then sighed, feeling melancholy.

It was strange, being a dad to three half-alien babies…  _ kids… _ who had grown up so fast. He felt like he’d basically missed out on everything childhood, especially with his day job being so dangerous and unpredictable. Combine that with the increased growth rate and… He felt like he’d been some kind of deadbeat dad that he always promised himself not to be.

At least he felt like a dad, though. Part of him had worried that he wouldn’t feel any connection to them at all, but… He definitely felt like their dad.

(He really hated dealing with the skin shedding, though.)

(At least they were past their phase of trying to eat the mice.)

When Shiro came back, Lance was ecstatic — not that anybody could’ve been more so than Keith, but still. He made sure his kids knew to stay in their room until he could get the chance to talk to Shiro, the day Shiro finally came out of Keith’s room.

That, uh, did not go so well, what with there being a mission, and then bedtime practically immediately. Even though Lance had  _ tried _ to keep them back so they didn’t overwhelm Shiro before he got used to actually being around people again.

They swarmed at breakfast just after Lance had sat down, so there was no way for him to do any damage control.

“Uncle Shiro!” Ramen yelled as he sprinted in on all fours, then leapt up onto Shiro’s lap.

Soba was close behind, smashing into Shiro’s leg and shaking her head before managing to climb up and also sit up in Shiro’s lap. “Hi Uncle Shiro! We’ve heard so much about you!”

Udon came too, slower than her siblings as usual, and sat down on Shiro’s foot. “Hi, Uncle Shiro,” she said quietly.

Lance dragged a hand down his face, watching Shiro’s startled and uncomfortable expression. “Kids, didn’t I tell you that we needed to have an adult talk and give Uncle Shiro some space before we introduced you?” he reminded them with a groan.

“But Papa, that was  _ aaaageeeees  _ ago,” Ramen complained, “Uncle Shiro came out of his room and there’s no bad guys right now, so we can meet! We’ve wanted to do this since  _ forever! _ ”

“Yeah, I know, kiddo, but…” Lance sighed, rubbing at his eyes and giving Shiro a rueful smile. “Sorry, Shiro. Meet, uh… my kids. Ramen’s the loudmouth there, Soba’s next to him, and Udon’s down there on your foot.”

Shiro inhaled deeply, and Lance could practically  _ see _ him thinking, “Patience yields focus.”

“I’ve missed you, Lance,” Shiro finally said, giving Lance a small smile before downing some coffee. Or, well, what was pretty close, anyway.

Lance smiled warmly. “I missed you, too, O Fearless Leader.”

“It’s good to be back,” Shiro continued, turning to the dragons, “And, uh. To get to meet you three. I don’t know what Lance — what your  _ dad  _ — has told you about me, but I didn’t die, come back, and then defeat Lord Voldemort to save the wizarding world from tyranny… His name was Lord Zarkon and it was a team effort that I couldn’t have managed without your dad and the other Paladins.”

Soba giggled. “No, he didn’t say you were Harry Potter, silly! You’re Uncle Shiro the Amazing Hero! It even rhymes!”

Udon took this moment to slowly crawl up and join her siblings on Shiro’s lap. “Yeah. He  _ did _ say it was you who kicked, um… Zarkon’s giant purple turtle butt, though.”

“Yeah!” Ramen enthused, wriggling with excitement, “He says you’re super cool and awesome and a great fighter and we just couldn’t wait to meet you anymore! Papa loves you! Oh! Now that you're alive again? Are you gonna date Uncle Keith? Papa says you two are stupidly in love but can’t see it and that you should ‘pull your heads from your—’”

_ “Ramen!” _ Lance interrupted, blushing bright red, “Where did you even  _ hear _ that?”

“Listening to you and Uncle Hunk,” Ramen said innocently.

Lance inhaled slowly.  _ Hah. Patience yields focus, I guess. _ “You know you’re not supposed to be eavesdropping, or repeating private conversations,” he said disapprovingly. “And you did both.”

Ramen slumped. “Sorry, Papa,” he said, giving Lance the big, sad eyes, “I didn’t mean to.”

Lance sighed. “Just try to think before you speak next time, kiddo.”

Ramen nodded, turning back to look up at Shiro. “Well, will you?”

Shiro chugged some more space coffee. “We’ll have to see,” he said evasively, “Adult conversations can be pretty hard sometimes.”

“Duh, it’s easy,” Soba said, rolling her eyes, “You just go up to him and say—” She swooned dramatically into Udon’s arms.

“Oh, my sweet Keith,” Soba crooned, patting Udon’s very serious face, “I’m  _ ever _ so in love with you! I want to marry you! You’re so big and strong and  _ cool!” _

“Oh, Shiro,” Udon said, deepening her voice and really getting into the act, “I never knew you felt that way about me!  _ You’re _ so cool, I thought I could never have you! I, too, feel the burning, passionate love of a thousand suns for you! Yes, let’s get married!”

Soba giggled and Udon let her go.

“See, Uncle Shiro, it’s easy,” Soba chirped.

_ Oh my God. _

Lance was both trying not to laugh and also send Shiro the most apologetic look he could muster. Neither was working very well.

“Well… Uh…” Shiro stalled, glancing around, “I’ll have to think about it, okay? I’ve been having a hard time after the Galra kidnapped me again. Sometimes people need space to… Think a lot after a big, scary thing like that happens. I haven’t had enough time yet.”

“Oh,” Udon said softly, “I’m sorry, Uncle Shiro.” She shifted to plant her hands on Shiro’s chest and nuzzle his cheek affectionately.

“I… thank you, Udon,” Shiro said, patting her back gently. “It’s okay. Hey, why don’t you guys go, uh…”

“Go tell Aunt Pidge to get her butt up for breakfast,” Lance interjected, grinning, “She’s nicer to you than anyone else.”

“Okay,” Ramen agreed with a happy chirp, immediately setting off. Soba and Udon followed after.

“I’m so sorry, Shiro,” Lance apologized as soon as he was sure his kids were out of earshot, “I really hoped they’d just, y’know,  _ listen, _ but they’re still pretty young, and…” Lance swallowed, looking away.

Shiro reached over and squeezed Lance’s shoulder. “Kids will be kids,” he said softly, “I don’t blame you. Do I wish I hadn’t been surprised by it? Yeah, but… It’s not that big a deal. Do you, uh… Wanna talk about it?”

Lance smiled weakly. “I’ll give you the highlights,” he joked, “They’re fast little shits. TL;DR, they hatched right after you disappeared. We didn’t, uh, know that I was… until they were ready to pop, so. And they’ve grown up so fast, too. Like, in human terms? They were born at about, say, two years old, and now they’re like, ten-ish?”

Shiro nodded. “You’re doing a good job with them so far,” he said quietly, “They look happy and healthy, and, uh, some certain stuff aside, they seem like very good kids. Well-meaning, at the very least.”

Lance chuckled. “Yeah, uh. They might’ve inherited my penchant for theatrics.”

“Oh, I’d say it’s more than a ‘might have’,” Shiro teased, finally starting to eat his breakfast. “It really is good to be back with you guys. Even if, uh… It’s just you right now.”

Lance smiled. “Yeah, well, everyone else will get here soon. I’ve been up at space’s equivalent of the ass crack of dawn for a long time. Hopefully once they hit teenagerhood I’ll be able to sleep in again. My cicada rhythm or whatever has been wrecked.”

Shiro snorted. “I hope you’ll be able to get enough sleep again soon.”

The small reprieve descended into chaos when Pidge showed up, followed shortly by the rest of the team and the kids, and Lance just laughed with them all.

*

Later in the day, Udon went to hang out with Uncle Keith in the Black Lion, while he taught her more about piloting. But he could tell there was something weighing on her mind, so he stopped the lesson, giving her a concerned look.

“What’s going on, Udon? You’re being more quiet than usual.”

Udon bit her lip, looking away. “It’s just… Why doesn’t Papa talk about our dad? Like, our other dad, I mean. He only said something about him once before, and that was just to say that talking about our other dad hurt him.”

Keith frowned, exhaling slowly. “Well, Udon, it’s… It’s complicated,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Your other dad… he hurt Lance—your Papa—really badly. So he had to get away and never see him again, because what he did was… unforgivable. It happened not too long before you guys, uh, hatched.”

“What was it?” Udon pressed, blinking up at Keith, the picture of innocence.

And God, Keith really didn’t want to destroy that innocence. She already had such horrors happening around her by being in the center of the war effort. Plus, it was  _ definitely _ not his thing to tell.

“It’s something so bad I can’t even say it,” he finally said, brushing some of Udon’s hair from her eyes. “And it’s really something your papa should tell you when he’s ready. Sometimes… really bad things happen. And you have to take a lot of time to… think about it, or sometimes not think about it, too, until you can feel ready to even  _ talk _ about it. And especially with children. Because you  _ are _ very young, and I know you don’t like that answer, but… being more specific without Lance’s permission could really hurt both you  _ and _ your papa.”

_ Oh! Like how Uncle Shiro has to think about a lot before asking Uncle Keith out! But at least he told me the whole story.  _ Udon drooped sadly. “I hate being young.”

Keith chuckled. “We all hate being young when we are young,” he said, pulling her into a hug. “But do you understand?”

“Yeah, I think so. I just wish our other dad hadn’t been bad. Papa doesn’t deserve people being bad and mean to him,” she said firmly.

“Me too, Udon, me too.”

Udon nuzzled Keith’s cheek. “I love you Uncle Keith. Thank you for telling me.”

“Of course, kid.” Keith smiled. “You ready to go get dinner?”

“Yeah!” She leapt down, giving Black’s control panel an affectionate pat. “Sorry I ignored you today, Black.”

“She says you’re forgiven,” Keith relayed at the answering rumble.

“Okay, cool! Dinner time, yeah!” Udon sprinted out, leaving Keith to chase after her and calling for her to wait up.


	5. Chapter 5

On the other side of the universe, not long after Keith permanently went to work with the Blades, Prince Lotor was relieved of his command as Emperor Pro Tem. He detested that Zarkon still lived, but this would at least grant him his own time to work on his plans, without the constant interruptions of the day-to-day business of running the Empire.

Acxa, having been looking into breaking past the witch’s protocols, came to him privately with troubling research. Haggar had found a way to essentially possess people she poisoned with her putrescent form of quintessence. Extremely troubling, given she’d done it to Kova, who Narti used as her eyes. With that kind of reach, it was possible for her to find out  _ everything _ and destroy everything he’d worked for.

Lotor ordered Acxa to work on counteracting it. That was the immediate next priority. In the meantime, it pained him, but he’d have to start keeping Narti in the dark about all his plans. Hopefully they would be able to find a way to disrupt the connection before something terrible happened.

Their move while conducting this research and finishing the ships was to hide as best they could and simply wait. He didn’t allow Narti to know their coordinates, which he knew confused her, but as he kept them a secret from everyone and ran the ship practically on his own, she stayed quiet. Lotor was grateful for that. He’d picked from brilliant people to be on his team, and he knew Narti knew something was extremely wrong.

They hid for a few vargas, until Acxa was able to come up with a disrupter to sever the connection the witch had to Kova and Narti.

When Lotor found them entering the bay where they were building the ships, he tensed. Quizzack. He’d forgotten to keep her out of there. He threw the disruptor at her feet and it exploded, making them both pass out.

“What was said while Narti was in the room?” he demanded of Ezor.

“Uh, not much? Just talking about the comet and the ships,” Ezor replied, frowning intensely, “Lotor, why did you just do that?”

“I had intel that the witch was using her to spy on us,” he replied shortly, “We need to get moving. We may not be safe here any longer. Zethrid, get Narti and Kova to the med bay immediately.”

Zethrid nodded and hoisted Narti over her shoulders, then scooped Kova up and jogged away.

“Does anybody know if Narti overheard our location from anyone?” he asked sharply.

Exor shook her head. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t get that info. You didn’t tell  _ anyone _ where we are, and now I can see why. How was Haggar doing that?”

Lotor inhaled slowly. At least their location was still safe. “The quintessence she harvests… She turns it into something… perverted. Stains it, somehow. Anyone she uses it on can become her puppet. She used it heavily on Kova. This was discovered early this morning by Acxa, so we’ve been working on saving Narti and Kova ever since. That should have completely destroyed her connection.”

“Phew! That’s good. But I guess Zarkon and Haggar will know about our ships now,” Ezor said, frowning. “Sorry, Lotor.”

“What’s done is done,” he sighed, “It is no fault of yours.”

“Sir, you need to see this!” Acxa yelled over the comms, pinging the transmitter in his suit.

Lotor brought it up, displaying the transmission Zarkon was sending.

_ Fugitive. _

Well, wasn’t that lovely.

“As soon as Narti is healthy, we’re abandoning ship and taking the Sinclines,” he said, “It’ll be harder for them to find us. We’ll stick together as we’ve always done and make a new plan. We’ll have to load the rest of the comet onto my ship and make the final one elsewhere.”

Ezor nodded, already bringing up the command panel and ordering the sentries around.

Perhaps, Lotor mused, it would be time to join forces with Voltron.

*

The Voltron Show was really gaining traction around the universe, and Lance  _ loved _ it.

Well, mostly loved it. He loved his parts! They were great, no complaints. But seeing the rest of his team so defeated by it… Wasn’t so great. He really had a personal bone to pick with Coran over making Hunk into a fart joke machine. His best friend deserved  _ way _ more than that!

“Okay guys,” Shiro sighed, “This is our last show, so let’s make it our best show. I know things haven’t exactly been great for us during these, but it’s been working to bring people together to defeat the Galra, and that’s what matters.”

“Thank goodness,” Pidge muttered, “I am  _ really _ sick of fake science.”

“And I’m sick of the fake farts,” Hunk said bitterly. “This whole one-dimensional character treatment of us really sucks.”

“At least you’re both yourselves,” Allura added, rolling her eyes, “I’m quite sick of being referred to as Keith.”

“Uh… I’m sick of how you guys are getting treated?” Lance offered with a sheepish smile, “I’m not really sick of anything  _ I’ve _ been doing. It’s been fun for me.”

“Lucky you,” everyone said at the same time, making Lance laugh.

Their cue came and they rushed out there, putting on their show for the last time.

“Form Voltron!” Shiro shouted during their second act, and Lance whooped. He would never tire of the feeling of forming Voltron with his team.

They started the fight, and Lance swooned over the great effects the Bii-Boh-Bi had put together. The monster was  _ great, _ and so were the models of the scared citizens running around the field. It wasn’t exactly in the script, but they could adapt. He was having a great time on their last run.

At least, until he heard Coran’s voice.

“Paladins! That’s a  _ real _ Swathian Meerakeet!” he shouted, “And Lance, your kids are out there! That’s not the Bii-Boh-Bi!”

“What?!” Lance shouted back, turning Red slightly to look at the ground and zoom in. 

Ramen, Soba, and Udon were down there, screaming and running around, dodging the blasts and feet of both the meerakeet and Voltron as best they could.

“Oh my God,” he whispered, “Guys, we gotta do something fast!”

“The lights of the holo-screen,” Shiro said, “It’s like a giant cat, right? It’ll follow them.”

“I’ve got this,” Allura said, flipping Voltron over so she could kick the screens and flashing lights out of the stadium. 

The meerakeet followed after it. Lance squirmed in his seat as they formed their last heroic pose as Voltron before de-forming. He ran out of Red immediately, heading straight for his kids.

“Kids! Are you alright?” he shouted, sliding on his knees and scooping them into his arms.

They clung tightly to him and all four of them started crying.

“Un-Uncle Coran told us,” Ramen explained between sobs, “It would be fun and we could be part of the last show. And be cool. But then the monster was real and scary and we didn’t know what to do!”

“I’ve got you,” Lance said, hugging them tightly, “I’ve got you. Papa’s here, kids. You’re safe.”

Lance was only distantly aware of Bii-Boh-Bi talking to the audience, focused on comforting his kids. He picked them up and took them inside Red, who growled lowly at the revelation that they’d been in such danger. She may not have liked them very much, but they were her Paladin’s cubs. She piloted them to the castle automatically to let Lance keep holding onto Ramen, Soba, and Udon.

“Why did Uncle Coran do that?” Udon asked, sad and confused.

“I don’t know,” Lance replied, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, “He said something about an evil brain worm, but there wasn’t a whole lot of time to figure it out before we could save you. We’ll ask him once we’re back home, okay?”

Udon nodded, snuggling back into her siblings.

“He went totally crazy,” Ramen said.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Lance said, chuckling softly, “But I’m sure it’s gonna be okay. We’ll figure it out and stop it from ever happening again.”

Hearing Coran’s explanation, Lance understood. Mostly. It still boiled his blood every time he remembered looking out Red’s eyes and seeing his  _ children _ on an impromptu battlefield.

“In hindsight, it was such an obviously bad decision. I don’t know why I went through with it,” Coran said.

“No kidding,” Lance said flatly. “It caused you to put  _ my children _ in danger. They’re already in bed, but you have some hefty apologizing to do to them, too, tomorrow morning.”

Coran nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry I put everyone through that.”

Bii-Boh-Bi entered and began chattering. Lance couldn’t tell what was being said, as usual, but Coran… Coran going even more pale than usual made him tense up. Bii-Boh-Bi was oblivious, squawking happily about… whatever was going on.

“Oh, wonderful,” Coran forced himself to say, “Well, thank you, Bii-Boh-Bi. You were a great help this entire time, it was a pleasure working with you. We will be, ah, discussing war efforts now, though, so I’d appreciate it if you went home.”

Bii-Boh-Bi saluted and left.

“It seems I have more to apologize for,” Coran said in the barest of whispers, “During the last show, it came out that Ramen, Udon, and Soba are your kids, Lance. I expect word will travel quickly…”

Lance dropped to his knees, putting a hand over his mouth. “No! No, it can’t be. That’s… That’s  _ so bad,” _ he said, “That’s like,  _ mega bad. _ The Galra will know and… Fuck… The kids’ll be in even  _ more _ danger. Oh my God.”

Hunk knelt next to Lance, pulling him into a hug.

“I’m so sorry,” Coran said, swallowing, “This was never… Any of my intentions… I’ve bollixed it all up quite badly.”

“No shit,” Lance said into Hunk’s shoulder, inhaling deeply, “But… It was probably only a matter of time before we got found out anyway. We’ve been doing little playdates with various rebels anyway, like Captain Olia and her kids. This is… faster and bigger than I would’ve hoped, but…”

He sighed, pulling away from Hunk and standing. “At least we don’t have to worry about hiding them entirely anymore.”

“I think it’s time we all hit the showers and went to bed,” Shiro said after a few beats of silence.

Murmurs of agreement spread around the room and Lance walked away quietly So much had happened that day. His kids could’ve  _ died. _ He hated that so much. It was different when he was risking his own life, but his kids getting unwittingly involved had terrified him beyond anything Zarkon could ever do to Lance himself. He prayed he could keep them safe along with the rest of the universe.

The next morning, Coran apologized to Ramen, Soba, and Udon for falling for the Unilu’s scheme, and they forgave him immediately, after making him pinky promise not to do it again, which he agreed to easily. Coran was familiar with the practice, considering Lance himself still thought very highly of the pinky promise, and Coran was happy to keep up with the tradition.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be a heavy chapter, where Lance talks through his feelings about the rape with Shiro. It's also important to note that I've decided not to go with a clone Shiro thing - they rescued the real Shiro. It just feels icky for such an important conversation to happen with a clone and such, but it's important for the story to have this happen at this point in time, instead of later. It hasn't been addressed in this fic at all yet anyway so it's nothing that has to actually be changed thankfully, just a change of any expectations to deal with a subplot! Thanks so much to my dedicated readers and I'll see y'all next Thursday <3

The more Lance thought about it, the more he really wanted to talk about his experiences with Shiro. Most everyone knew about Jason Murphy and what he did to Shiro for several years. Ensnaring Shiro as a twelve-year-old and sexually abusing him until everything burst when Shiro turned sixteen. It had been a pretty high profile case. That, combined with Shiro doing some kind of propo thing with the Garrison about it to raise money for kids abused like Shiro had been, the internet still gave relatively recent results about Shiro’s case when you looked him up.

It felt… weird, to want to talk about it with Shiro, but… he’d definitely offered, way back when he first met Lance’s kids. He just couldn’t shake the sense of weirdness since he knew beforehand what Shiro had been through.

Still, though. As much as he hated that Shiro would understand, it was nice to have someone who did understand that he could talk to.

He knocked on Shiro’s door, startled by the immediate response to come in.

“Hey, Shiro,” he greeted, stepping in. “I, uh… Can we talk? About… stuff?”

Shiro put away his tablet and nodded. “Here, take the desk chair,” he said, standing up and moving to sit on his bed. “I’m guessing this is about… Your kids, in a way.”

“Sorta,” Lance agreed, sitting down and smiling weakly. “... I still can’t say it. The… the ‘r’ word. Is that, like, normal, or?” He trailed off, hugging himself. “I just… I don’t even really know where else to start, talking about… what happened. Like, I want to talk about it, and I know you’ll understand better than anyone else on the castle-ship, and… I want to tell  _ someone _ the whole story? And that someone, I guess, is you. If you want to hear it, obviously, you don’t — you don’t  _ have _ to listen, you can tell me to stop and I’ll just, y’know, leave.”

“Lance, I promise, if I get too uncomfortable, I’ll tell you. But I want to listen to you,” Shiro said gently, “Yes. It’s normal to not want to use that word, or associate it with yourself. It’s a… really hard concept to put on yourself. Even if that’s a hundred percent what happened. That word… carries a lot of weight. And it’s really scary to put down in such a simple term what happened to you.”

Lance nodded slowly, feeling relieved. “Okay, uh… One question down, I guess. Uh. How did you… know? That I wasn’t just, y’know…” He blushed, looking away, before whispering his next words. “That I hadn’t just been some kind of slut for aliens and really fucked up?” 

Shiro reached out for a moment, before pulling his hand back again. “Lance, I… The things I saw in the arena? Most half-alien babies… Don’t come about happily or consensually. With the exception of Keith.”

Lance snorted, giving Shiro a tiny grin. “Well… I’m glad your instinct was right? Uh! Not that I mean I’m glad it happened, I just…” He groaned, tugging on his hair slightly. “I meant, like, that you didn’t assume… I’d gotten space-married or gone space-slutting.”

“I’m glad too,” Shiro said, then panicked, “I mean, of course, that I ended up, uh,  _ not _ hurting your feelings? And making everything worse? Not that I’m glad it happened at all, either.”

Lance nodded, stifling a giggle. “I know what you meant, man. Um… So like… We landed on the planet, right? And… we found the mermaid palace or whatever, and then we got served a fancy dinner, and… it was the fruit. The back of Baku, it was… the garden where the fruit grew. And that fruit gave it its way into your mind. After dinner, Queen Luxia, she… sent Hunk off to bed, but told me…” He swallowed. “God, I was so stupid. Even for being under mind control. She just told me she had a very important task for me in the garden and I just… went with it. I didn’t even question it. I just wanted to do what the pretty mermaids wanted me to do.”

He hugged himself, looking away. “If I wasn’t already such a slut for aliens and wanted to get with a mermaid, I wouldn’t have gotten r… by a sea  _ monster.” _

Shiro reached out and laid a hand on Lance's shoulder, gazing at him seriously. “Lance, you can’t blame yourself for any of that. The sea dragon chose to do that to you. You should’ve been able to trust that you were safe, not getting poisoned and led on to something like that. Caution is important, but you couldn’t have possibly known that a sea dragon with mind control powers was going to do that to you.”

Lance shuddered, standing and shifting to sit by Shiro on the bed so he could lean into his side.

“Still, I… I just… I hate that I got tricked,” Lance said miserably, “I just saw a pretty face and went with it.”

“Hunk didn’t just see a pretty face, and he ate the fruit too,” Shiro pointed out, “He’s a pretty skeptical person, too. Just because you got picked for…  _ that… _ doesn’t mean you deserved it.”

“But… then, during, it… it felt good,” Lance whispered, ashamed. Tears started rolling down his face. “I still don’t remember a whole lot, but I know I just… floated there and took it. Encouraged it. I  _ wanted _ it, I wanted more, and it felt so good, I didn’t want it to stop.”

“Lance. You were under its control. You probably felt like nothing in the world could’ve bothered you. You weren’t thinking straight because you weren’t allowed to think at all. Plus…” Shiro breathed in slowly. “If you’re bad because your body enjoyed the sexual feelings it was being given, then I’m bad too. The things Jason did to me… They always felt so good in the moment. Even if after, I felt so… used, dirty, broken. Bodies don’t know the difference between a good sexual touch and a bad one. It’s just a sexual touch. It’ll feel physically good, even if emotionally, we’re hating every second. Let me ask you this: if you’d been in your complete right mind, and been lured into that garden, would you have fought the dragon when it tried to do that to you?”

“Yeah,” Lance answered immediately, “I, y’know, wanna be taken to dinner first, that kind of thing. I wouldn’t have… just gone with it.”

“Then it was rape, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter what else was going on. You didn’t want it.”

Lance nodded, wiping at his face. “You’re right… Thank you. I’m really glad I could… talk to you. This has helped me so much.”

“Of course,” Shiro said softly, wrapping his arm around Lance’s shoulders and squeezing him gently, “It’s all what I needed to hear back then. The least I can do is use what I’ve learned to help others. And you know what? You’re doing a great job with Ramen, Soba, and Udon. They’re growing up to be brilliant, kind individuals.”

Lance blushed. “You really think so? It’s something I worry about, with… being a Paladin. Dangerous, unpredictable job. And I worry that I haven’t been giving them enough time with me, or too much, or giving them a pretty normal childhood, even though, like, all evidence points to them being adults in just under a year here because they grow up so fast, but like, that’s why a good childhood is so important, right? And I just…” He sighed frustratedly and buried his face in Shiro’s shoulder.

“You worry about them, and you want to do a good job. Which you are. They feel safe with you and tell you everything. They love you. You’re a great dad, even if they’re all grown up in a year, they’ll love what you were able to give them while also literally saving their lives plus the lives of trillions of other people's as a Paladin of Voltron.”

Lance smiled shyly. “I’m glad  _ someone _ thinks so. I just wish… if it had to happen, that it could’ve happened when we didn’t have to fight anymore. When we could live on a planet, hopefully Earth, and they could play outside, on the grass, in fresh air and a sun or two every day, and go swimming in an ocean with natural currents instead of artificial. Instead of in a castle with not much to look at, with everything artificial, and just… hardly getting any real chances to be a kid on a real planet.”

“I know we do what we can for them. They’ve been given days on the surface of the Olkari planet, and played with other kids. You wish you could do better, but you’re already doing your absolute best. They’re getting their chances to be as normal as possible while dead center of a war, because of your efforts to make it happen. You’re a great father, Lance. Even if things seem bleak. I’m sure they’ll have the same opinion when they grow up.” Shiro smiled warmly.

“Thank you, Shiro. For everything. You’re the best.”

“It’s what I’m here for,” he deadpanned, making Lance laugh.

A moment later, Lance sighed. “How… do you tell yourself you didn’t deserve it? That it wasn’t…. A good thing? Because…” He inhaled sharply. “I mean, you saw what I was like after that planet. I grew up a little. I stopped being such an immature little shit. Like, the aftermath… had a good impact on my life. How do I tell myself… It’s not a good thing that it happened at all? Because I really feel that way, and I hate it.”

Shiro hummed in thought, rubbing his chin. “I’m not ignoring you,” he said absently, “Just... thinking of how best to phrase this.”

Lance nodded, waiting as patiently as he could.

Shiro inhaled slowly, then exhaled just as slowly. “So… I’m going to tell you something that not even Keith knows yet.”

“Whoa, that’s a lot of trust,” Lance said, tone half-joking, half-awed.

“Yeah, well,” Shiro said, snorting softly and smiling, “You’re worth it. So…” Shiro inhaled deeply again. “During my time in the arena, as the Champion… we had  _ patrons. _ Sendak… was mine. This tended to mean, uh. They gave us better living conditions for fighting, in exchange for… sexual ‘favors’. We didn’t get a choice in the matter.”

“Oh, shit,” Lance said softly, with feeling.

“You’d say I didn’t deserve this, of course. But… the brain demons…” Shiro quirked his eyebrows slightly, knowing how silly that sounded. “They’d say I deserved to be treated like that because I killed so many innocent people just to stay alive, despite how many lives I saved, too. Then, I ended up getting rescued because Sendak kept me separate from the other prisoners so often. Ulaz was able to get special dispensation to do some experiments on me, because Sendak wanted to ‘fix’ me. Y’know, my ADHD. So Ulaz took the opportunity and punted me back to Earth. You could say it was a good thing Sendak was so obsessed with me and did all those things to me, because it let me escape and become part of Voltron.”

He took another deep breath. “But all that doesn’t mean it was a good thing at all, Lance. Sometimes, bad things happen, and all we can do is pick up and carry on. And find the light in the dark.”

Shiro gave Lance a sideways look before continuing. “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

Lance, who had been nodding along, suddenly stopped and squinted at Shiro, who gave him a look like “haha, you love me, and I'm only kind of sorry I just said what I did”.

“Did you just quote Harry Potter?” he asked disbelievingly.

“Listen, just because I hate being compared to him doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fun series that had good things in it,” Shiro defended himself, still grinning sheepishly, “It has it’s really bad parts, but like I said… You take the bad and you can make something good out of it. Or, exactly what Dumbledore said.”

Lance smiled, elbowing Shiro slightly. “You’re a dork! I didn’t know you could be one,” he teased gently, laughing softly. “Well, I mean… Thank you. That really did help me feel a lot better. Seriously. I appreciate you being my temporary therapist.”

Shiro snorted. “Sure, yeah. It’s what I’m good at, apparently.”

Lance grinned. “Okay, well, I’m gonna go to bed now. This was… really good.”

“Alright. Sleep well, Lance.”

Lance smiled and went off, feeling much better and lighter than he had in a long time. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another pretty rough chapter. Parenting hiccups and fights, and Lance finally tells the children where they come from.

These days, Lance was mostly scared for his children. He didn’t want them getting hurt. But they were old enough to do fight training now, so that was  _ something. _ Gave them some kind of chance. They needed a lot more food, that was for certain. They were sprouting up so fast. In just under a month after the last notable growth spurt, they’d hit Lance’s collarbone in height and they were getting to be about as thick around the middle as Lance.

He really, really missed being able to hold all three of them together. They were growing up so fast it hurt. Both them physically, and Lance emotionally. No more floats with them laying on his chest. No more arm cuddle piles. They’d definitely hit teenagerhood, though, because holy shit, had they all gotten  _ moody as fuck. _

It was hard, having them pull away so much so suddenly, but Lance did his best to respect them and their privacy. He wanted so badly to be a good parent.

He realized that it was definitely hard on them, growing up so much faster than most of their childhood friends, and making new ones was always difficult in general. Especially now that it was out that they were his kids. People they visited would try to get their friends to befriend his kids to have an “in” and all sorts of things.

So, Lance asked Coran about some options and went to the lounge area that had been designated for Ramen, Soba, and Udon. (They’d all gotten their own bedrooms as soon as they’d started asking about it a few weeks ago, as well).

“Hey guys,” Lance greeted, tugging in the giant box behind him, “I’ve got some presents for you. I know it’s been really lonely and — ah!” He yelped as he fell over, tugging too hard on the box and getting nowhere but the floor.

“Shit, Dad, you okay?” Soba asked, poking her head over the couch.

“I’m fine,” he replied, chuckling a bit and standing. “Just, uh. Used to using my lion to do the heavy lifting is all.”

Ramen snickered. “Do you want some help, Dad?”

“Nah, I got it, I got it,” Lance said, shifting to push instead of pull. His feet simply slipped over the linoleum (or whatever it actually was) and he still got nowhere. 

He sighed, drooping over the box. “Whatever, it’s in here, and we can unpack it. The stuff is definitely going to stay in here anyway, so.”

“What is it?” Udon asked, getting up and coming over to touch the box.

“Well, it’s a present! You have to open it,” Lance teased, grinning.

Udon rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop a small smile at the edge of her mouth. She ripped open the box easily with her claws and frowned at the contents.

“So, uh… What is it?”

“It’s some heavy duty gaming computers. I know you guys really liked to play  _ Killbot Phantasm _ on the old Mercury Gameflux, but this stuff is  _ wayyy, way _ better. You’ll be able to get on the internet and communicate with thousands of peoples all over different galaxies! And play all kinds of super fun games instead of just one,” Lance explained, grinning widely, “I know it’s not the same as being able to make friends with someone standing right next to you, but at least this is pretty anonymous, so someone can’t just try to befriend you because of who you are. I mean, as long as you practice basic internet safety rules. And uh, there  _ will _ be a lot more than the normal kinds of rules, because… y’know, we’re at the very center of the war effort, but. I really hope this stuff works out for you guys. I wish I could give you more.”

Udon’s frown deepened. “Dad, this is…”

“I — I’m sorry, is it not…? Something you guys would want?” he asked, frowning as well. “I thought you guys would love it. I — I know things haven’t exactly been good lately, so I just wanted to — oof!”

Udon cut him off by hugging him tightly, and Lance inhaled sharply, trying not to cry. It had been way too long since one of them had hugged him, and he really didn’t want to ruin it by crying. He gently hugged her back, feeling overwhelmed.

Ramen and Soba joined the hug, and then Lance really couldn’t hold back anymore, crying silent tears as he held his children.

“It’s great, Dad,” Ramen said softly, “I’m sorry we’ve kind of been huge jerks lately. You… You’re a great dad, and you’re trying so hard, and it’s not your fault you got picked by a magic lion to do her magical lion bidding.”

“Yeah,” Soba whispered, “We love you, lots.”

Lance smiled a wobbly smile and sniffed loudly. “I love you guys lots too,” he said, “You’re all such amazing people. You’ve grown up so… well. Not to toot my own horn as a parent, I guess.”

Ramen snorted and laughed. “I mean, we’re good people because  _ you’re _ a good people. You and the rest of our family. We got really lucky.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry we’ve been so mean,” Udon said quietly. “You’re the best dad we could’ve gotten.”

“Aww, you guys, you’re making me cry,” Lance said.

“You have been this whole time,” Soba pointed out, earning herself a smack on the shoulder from Udon. “Whaaaat? It’s true.”

“I’m really happy you guys feel so happy,” Lance said before Udon could try to scold her sister. “So, um… Shall we get to setting these things up? What corners do you want to place them in?.....Oh,  _ quiznak, _ I didn’t even think about desks. I just got the computers in here. Uh.”

Soba laughed brightly. “Dad, we can go buy desks from the Space Mall or something, okay? Then come back and listen to all your rules while we put these things up.”

“Yeah,” Ramen said earnestly, “We’ll be very careful! We don’t want to accidentally tell Zarkon or someone where we are. We’ll take it very seriously, I promise.”

“Okay. Then let’s go shopping.”

*

Lance really couldn’t believe that Lotor and his generals had just saved their asses at Naxzela, but it made sense, sort of. If they were already in the area and couldn’t get away, better to stop the giant bomb from going off and killing them.

Then they had asked for an alliance. Lance thought the whole thing was batshit crazy. But over time, they fed team Voltron information that was rapidly changing the tide in the war. 

He still felt unsure about trusting them, even after the Kral Zera, especially to let them out of prisoner’s quarters (but he was outvoted). Especially as his kids were still pretty vulnerable. They could hold their own against a few level two training bots, but Lotor and his crew were like, level over nine thousand!

(He didn’t really know what that meant, but he  _ did _ know Hunk said it was cool, so.)

Between that and his kids continuing to treat him frostily, he felt kind of helpless. They’d only been nicer to him for a week or so before falling back on snapping at him all the time. He really didn’t know why they were giving him so much attitude beyond “they’re teenagers, it’s what they do”.

“Hey Ramen,” he greeted as he passed by the kitchen, “Having a good day?”

“It’s fine,” Ramen said shortly, shutting one of the cabinets hard.

“Doesn’t sound fine,” he said as casually as he could, trying too hard to appear like he wasn’t fishing for a proper answer and coming off completely obvious.

“I don’t really care what you think doesn’t sound fine,” Ramen said irritably, “I was fine until you started badgering me about it!”

“I wasn’t badgering,” Lance protested, hurt, “I just…” He sighed. “I just want to be sure you’re okay.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not,” Ramen snapped, “Just leave me alone, okay? I’m handling it myself. I don’t need you, especially since you don’t want to give me the answers anyway.”

“What does  _ that _ mean?” Lance asked, completely bewildered.

“It means you’re too selfish!” Ramen snapped again, turning and starting to walk away, “You don’t  _ actually _ care. Just leave me alone!”

“Ramen, I…” Lance sighed again, watching Ramen walk away with his tail flicking in irritation.

He stayed standing in the kitchen for several minutes, contemplating whatever the hell Ramen meant. Selfish? Didn’t care? Where did all that come from? Eventually, he managed to sit himself down, feeling lost and confused and sad. 

What was he doing wrong? This wasn’t just normal teenager stuff, was it? Was he supposed to feel like a failure? Fuck, he hated this so much. 

He didn’t realize he was crying for a long time.

*

“Ugh,” Ramen groaned as he slumped into the lounge he shared with his sisters after that fiasco, “I think those weird things on my back are growing in again.”

“Me too,” Udon said, sitting down in front of Soba so she could start clawing them off. “Here, let me help you.”

Ramen plopped in front of Udon and she started combing through the kelp on his back, plucking off the strange growths.

“This stuff is driving me crazy,” Soba said, “And are we  _ sure _ we can’t ask Dad about this?”

“Yup,” Udon said, wincing when Soba pulled another of the growths from her back, “He doesn’t want to talk about what we are at all. Or who our other parent is. He told us a while back he’d tell us when we were older, but he hasn’t brought it up again at all. He doesn’t tell us  _ anything _ about our other species. He’s keeping some kind of secret about it all for some reason. He’ll  _ never _ tell us.”

“Yeah,” Ramen agreed, “Dad doesn’t care about any of what we’re going through like this. Sure, like, he cares about our mental state? But this physical stuff is so… He doesn’t care at all unless we get injured. But there’s strange things happening and he doesn’t even care! He tells us all about things before they happen usually, but with our dragon half or whatever it is, he just… doesn’t give a single fuck.”

Soba swallowed. “Yeah. I hate it too. I just want him to be honest with us.”

“I wish we knew what was happening,” Udon said, slapping Ramen’s shoulder twice to indicate she was done.

“Yeah. It’s so… scary,” Ramen whispered, picking up all the weird little bulbs and throwing them in the trash.

Lotor knocked on the wall as he entered the room, making the three siblings jump in surprise, then stand together, watching him warily.

“What do you want?” Soba asked with narrowed eyes.

“I couldn’t help but overhear,” he said softly, “And I personally know what it’s like to grow up not knowing what the other, alien half of you is doing because your father refuses to ever speak of them.”

Ramen blinked. “You do?”

Lotor nodded. “I’d like to speak with you three, if you’re willing. I can offer some perspective,” he said, gesturing to the couches.

The three looked at each other, then nodded simultaneously, sitting down next to each other.

Lotor sat across from them, inhaling deeply. “Now, obviously, I don’t know everything about your relationship with your father, but I can say that it’s very different from mine with my father. Perhaps none of what I’ve experienced personally will apply to you, but maybe you will be able to get something out of it. With that out of the way…”

He crossed his legs and sat back dramatically. “You may or may not know that my father is Zarkon.”

He paused to let them nod at him, then continued. “He wasn’t any sort of real father. Not much more than a sperm donor. He hardly ever paid any attention to me, only hired a governess to raise me and then would punish me for any wrongdoing he managed to be around for. As a child, I wanted nothing more than to please him, but he never told me anything about my mother. Everything wrong I ever did was attributed to ‘that nasty Altean half’. That’s all I ever got. One day, Dyak, my governess, let her name slip. Honerva.

“She immediately made me promise not to tell my father I knew, which I agreed to, and then I spent much free time researching in secret. I learned a lot of truths he never wanted to tell me. How horrible he truly was, how awful his experiments and methods were, more of my heritage. I learned what shapeshifting was and used it to the best I could. I learned a lot about quintessence from my mother’s studies and how what my father wanted could be done far more efficiently. I tried to show him, once… It ended in the genocide of a people and my banishment, again blamed on my ‘sentimental Altean half’. With no explanations from him, ever. If I hadn’t learned on my own, I would’ve grown to be just like him.”

He inhaled deeply, noting the trepidation on their faces. “Now, from what it sounds like, your father is merely avoiding the topic entirely. Yes or no?”

Ramen glanced as his sisters before nodding. “Yeah, exactly, like… he doesn’t  _ exactly _ pretend like our other dad didn’t exist? He’s said things like… ‘your other dad wasn’t that great a person’ and when we were really young he just said, like… ‘he hurt me a lot’. Always promised to tell us more when we were older, and we even tried asking our Uncle Keith once, and he just said it’s Dad’s story to tell. But we haven’t asked in a while and he just never brings it up on his own. He doesn’t… say what your dad did, though. Stuff like ‘oh you’re just like that evil father’ or whatever. Just… nothing.”

Lotor’s eyes widened slightly as he processed that, making a lightning fast realization. The implications of it all made it out to be that Lance had been abused at the hands of whatever other creature had fathered Lance’s children. People like Zarkon actively hated other kinds of people and made sure everyone knew; people like Lance (and Lotor, when he ever dared to think about what Sendak had done to him) would avoid the topic and continue to treat others of the same species as their own people instead of part of a faceless mass of hatred.

He took another deep breath, again taking note of how worried the teenagers looked.

“I don’t believe your father is anything like mine,” he finally made himself say in the most neutral tone he could manage, “I would encourage you to ask him about it again. You certainly seem old enough to understand anything he could tell you. I’m very certain the situations aren’t the same at all.”

Ramen, Soba, and Udon, all relaxed for a moment, before Udon gave Lotor a very serious look.

“Should we be worried about him?” she asked quietly.

Perceptive child, he thought. “I don’t think you need to be, unless he suddenly starts acting very differently. But this really is something you should ask him about. He’s the only one who can tell you.”

“We’ve been really mean to him because he won’t just tell us,” Soba said, wincing, “I guess we should’ve just asked again, huh?”

Lotor raised his eyebrows. This… was not his area of expertise. But he figured he’d best try.

“I suppose so,” he said lightly, standing up. “I would suggest apologizing and explaining, in that case. He might be more receptive to telling you then.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Soba said with a sigh, slumping over.

Lotor decided to leave silently and let the teens stew over what to do. He’d done what he could; the rest was up to them. Seeing good family dynamics was always jarring for him. How, while this problem wasn’t exactly simple, they still knew they were loved. That things weren’t all that wrong after all, after a little reassurance. How they felt that they  _ could _ approach Lance after being nasty to him in the first place without too much fear of what could happen.

Not for the first time, he wished he could’ve had that.

Not for the first time, he tamped that useless wish down and kept walking.

*

Hunk found him, long after Lance’s tears had dried, sitting and staring at the wall, trapped in his thoughts.

“Hey, Lance? You, uh… wanna talk?” Hunk asked softly, sitting next to him. “I could just start making lunch instead, if you don’t want to.”

Lance nodded, shook his head, nodded again, and then sighed. “Hunk… am I a bad dad?” he asked, crestfallen.

“Of course not,” Hunk replied immediately, giving Lance a worried look. “Did something happen?”

“They hate me,” Lance whispered, hugging his legs to his chest.

Hunk scooted their chairs closer together and wrapped his arm around Lance, holding him close. “Okay, they don’t hate you, that’s for sure. What happened?”

Lance whined softly. “I don’t know, exactly? The kids all just started… snapping at me, not talking to me, refusing to answer me except to be mean little shits, and I hate  _ saying _ that but it really fucking hurts, y’know? I thought I was doing my best but it looks like my best hasn’t been good  _ enough _ and I don’t even know what I did wrong, because they won’t talk to me. Ramen yelled at me when I asked how his day went, said I was selfish and that I didn’t care, and… something about how I’d never give him answers?”

Hunk inhaled deeply, rubbing Lance’s arm. “Okay, well… I don’t have any idea what’s up,” he admitted, “It just sounds like some kind of general teenage angst.”

Lance snuggled into Hunk’s side with a deep, sad sigh. “I hope it blows over soon? I just. I have no idea what to do. This isn’t exactly something I was prepared for in the first place. I just wish I knew what they were talking about so I could do something about it. I hate this… waiting.”

“I’m sorry,” Hunk said sympathetically, “I wish you knew, too. I hate fighting so much.”

“At least you’re not living it,” Lance said dryly.

“I’m listening to you bitch about it,” Hunk shot back, pinching Lance’s arm.

“Hey!” he shouted, wrenching away from Hunk’s grasp and slapping his arm in return. “You’re evil and I hate you.” His grin belied the harsh words, making Hunk laugh.

“Yeah, suuuure, so evil. Okay, what do you want for lunch, because you look like you haven’t eaten in a while?” Hunk asked, standing.

“Uh…” Lance inhaled slowly. “Do you have the stuff that can almost taste like my _mami’s_ _ropa vieja?”_

Hunk rustled through the kitchen to double check before nodding. “Yup. I’ve got your back, bud.”

“Come on, lemme help,” Lance protested, standing, only to be shoved back into his seat.

“Nope. You’re having a bad day, so let me take care of you.”

“Fine.” Lance rolled his eyes, smiling softly, and stayed put.

Hunk grinned back and started moving around the kitchen. The least he could do, he thought, was help Lance feel better, just for a little while. Then they could work on figuring out things with the kids.

*

Ramen, Soba, and Udon all slumped into the kitchen as Hunk and Lance were wrapping up their lunch.

“Dad? Can we talk to you?” Soba asked quietly, glancing uncertainly at Hunk.

“I’ll clear out,” Hunk offered immediately, taking his plate to the sink as he shoveled the last of his food in his mouth.

“Thanks, Uncle Hunk,” Ramen said, sitting across the table from Lance. Soba and Udon sat next to him.

Lance gave Hunk a half-smile in response to the thumbs up he got as Hunk left, then turned to face his kids.

“What’s up, guys?” he asked seriously, folding his hands together on the table.

“Well… We, uh…”

“We want to know who our other dad was,” Udon said, “We think we can handle whatever it is, and… That’s why we’ve been so snappy and mean.”

“We’re really sorry,” Soba said, tears filling her eyes, “We’re just… tired and frustrated because… There’s stuff happening to us we don’t understand and we want to know what he was so we can fix it.”

“Stuff happening?” Lance echoed, brow furrowing in worry, “Guys, I… I was going to say ‘you know you can tell me anything’, but you obviously don’t feel that way… Because I guess I haven’t really done the same.”

He sighed softly. “I’m sorry for that. But… The thing is, the story with your other father… is not a happy one. At all. It… I…” He sighed again, rubbing his hands over his face. 

“Dad?” Ramen prodded after a few moments.

Lance inhaled very slowly. “Okay. Okay. The truth. Um… You know how I’ve told you guys the story about Uncle Hunk and I visiting a planet of mermaids and defeating the evil sea dragon?”

He noted the sudden dread and apprehension on their faces, already feeling sick to his stomach about having to tell them this.

“I’ve always given you the very… sanitized version,” he continued, “And… While I was mind-controlled, Baku, he… He raped me. And he forced me to take his eggs. Eggs that… became you three.”

Soba gagged, and Lance felt so, so guilty.

“We had to kill him to get him to stop. And the truth is, we have no idea what planet he really belonged to. It seems like he just got shot from somewhere in space and landed there. Coran and I really tried to find any information, but we couldn’t. So we just… hoped and prayed nothing weird would happen that we couldn’t deal with,” he finished. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to tell you that… That you weren’t… conceived under great conditions. No parent wants to tell their kids such a horrible thing, y’know?”

Udon sniffled, grabbing Soba’s hand. Soba grabbed at Ramen’s, and they squeezed in together.

“I’m sorry we were so mean,” Udon managed to say, “Especially with… that we were… How do you do it? How do you not hate us?”

Lance’s face softened. “I could never hate an innocent child for what circumstances they were born under,” he said softly but firmly, “Ever. It’s not your fault. I love you three so much… I didn’t want to burden you with that knowledge. You may not have been expected, but the second you hatched, I knew I’d always want you. Even if you drove me crazy.” He teased lightly at the end.

Ramen gave a wet chuckle, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, too, Dad. You deserved so much better than us being total asses the last couple weeks.”

“I forgive you three, really,” Lance said sincerely, “I’m just glad we were able to talk about it. So… you said there were strange things happening?”

Ramen glanced at his sisters before nodding. “Yeah, uh. There’s like, weird things growing on our backs. We don’t know what it is but they’re itchy and stuff. We throw them away when they grow back again, but…” He trailed off as Lance paled. “Dad?”

Lance swallowed heavily. “Sorry, sorry, I… It seems like you inherited it from Baku. Your backs are technically a garden. It’s a kind of fruit that, when eaten, makes people very susceptible to your mind control. I have no real idea how it works, just that eating that fruit is what… made it so I could be controlled.”

Ramen looked stricken, gripping Soba’s hand tighter.

“Oh, fuck,” Udon said softly, with feeling.

“Don’t apologize,” Lance said quickly, “This isn’t your fault. I’m going to do my best to help you three with this, okay? I don’t know what that means yet, but I’m going to help. As best I can. I promise.”

Soba sniffled. “Thanks, Papa. I’m really happy to know what it is now, even if it’s… not happy itself.”

“Knowing what’s happening to your body is always a relief, even if it’s not necessarily a good thing,” Lance said gently, “Like, it’s better to know if your arm is broken rather than not, because then you can treat it. You know what went wrong. Even if what’s going on for you isn’t something ‘going wrong’, it’s just, uh… Sea dragon puberty.”

Soba snickered, and Ramen stuck out his tongue.

“Bleh, I hate the word puberty.”

Lance laughed quietly. “Yeah, me too, bud. Getting the talk from my parents sucked. It’s an unfortunately needed cycle of suck-talk.”

Udon giggled, rolling her eyes. “Well, um. Are we… good then?”

“Yeah. I said I forgive you, and I meant it,” Lance reaffirmed, “I’m not even going to ground you or anything. It’s all water under the bridge, now I know why you were acting out. Things happening to your body is really scary. But, I mean, next time, I may not be so lenient.”

“There won’t be a next time,” Ramen swore.

Lance couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. But I’m pretty sure something will happen eventually that’ll make you lose your temper,” he said, smiling, “It happens to everyone. Even full grown adults. But we’ll get through it together.”

“Well, I’ll try not to flip out too much,” Ramen amended.

“Same,” Soba added, “I really do love you, Dad. And I don’t want to hurt you.”

Lance wiped at his eyes preemptively. “You guys are sweet. I love you all, too. Okay, you guys hungry? Hunk only made enough for him and me so we could talk together, but I bet I could at least whip up some food goo.”

“Ew,” Soba said, wrinkling her nose, “Any better ideas?”

Lance laughed. “I’ll try. Or would you rather I asked Uncle Hunk if he’d be willing to fix you up something?”

“Uncle Hunk, please,” Udon said, grinning.

“Okay, I see how it is,” Lance teased, sending a message on his space phone. “Okay, he’ll come cook for y’all. I’m going to squeeze in some training time so I don’t get yelled at by Allura.”

Ramen snickered. “Better watch out,” he teased. “Have a good time, Dad.”

“Thanks. Have a good lunch, kids.” He walked away, feeling so much lighter with the conflict resolved.


	8. Chapter 8

It was a few days later that Lance thought of it.

“What made you three finally sit down and talk to me?” he asked impulsively, glancing at his kids over the dinner table, “As far as I know, you didn’t talk to anyone on the team.”

Ramen, Soba, and Udon glanced nervously at each other.

“Well, Dad, um,” Ramen began, “You see, uh…”

“We were talking to each other about it, and Emperor Lotor overheard us,” Soba blurted.

Udon cringed slightly. “Yeah, um… He came in and talked to us. He told us… Some personal stuff that really put things into perspective, y’know? So we finally talked to you about it. Because we realized you still loved us even though we were being shitty and you just were trying your best.”

Lance blinked. Turned and looked at the rest of the Paladins plus Coran, who were all staring at Lotor down the other way with owlish blinks. Looked towards Lotor, who looked completely unruffled, but Acxa was giving Lotor a raised eyebrow, Zethrid was… making some type of face Lance couldn’t read, maybe… bored?? And Ezor just looked utterly delighted by… probably what she expected to be a ton of chaos. Narti also looked completely unruffled, just continuing to eat. Maybe a little more tense.

Lance then turned back to his kids, who looked back at him with trepidation. It wasn’t exactly a secret that Lance wasn’t a fan of Lotor. But he’d realized it was his stupid jealousy over him and Allura bonding, even though he… really wasn’t as into Allura as he thought he had been, anymore. With that resolved, then… he had no real reason to not like Lotor. He was pretty, intelligent, had a dry wit that took some time getting used to but was funny all the same, and… Maybe they could be friends?

_ Oh. _

_ Oh, shit. _

_ Goddamnit. _

He realized he was silent for too long and cleared his throat, looking back to Lotor.

“Thank you, Emperor Lotor,” he finally said, smiling slightly, “I’m glad you could help them —  _ us _ — with that. It’s pretty important for people from different backgrounds to understand each other, especially since it helped us resolve our fight. I’m grateful, really.”

Lotor looked faintly surprised, probably having expected Lance to blow up. Ezor looked disappointed, probably having been  _ hoping  _ for the same.

“I am happy I could help,” Lotor said after a short pause, “Familial troubles tend to be the worst sort. You make an admirable father, Paladin Lance.”

Lance blushed. “Aw, shucks, I… Thanks. I really don’t want to let them down.” He smiled fondly at his kids as he spoke.

“I think you’re doing great, Dad,” Udon said softly.

“I mean, I’m a little let down,” Soba said with a silly grin, “We still haven’t gone to the mythical Disneyland.”

“Yeah,” Ramen added, amused, “Really, Dad, you dropped the ball there.”

Lance just shook his head and laughed. “Okay, well, when  _ you _ three finish killing Haggar, and, like, tame the rest of the evil Galra, then we’ll talk about going to Earth and going to Disneyland, okay?”

“We’ll get right on it,” Udon said dryly.

Allura giggled. “Well, do let us know your plans,” she said solemnly, “We might need to provide backup, of course.”

Soba snickered. “Of course, Auntie.”

The tension had finally broken, and the table broke into easy chatter once more. It was strange, Lance thought to himself, the camaraderie that had been built up here. But it was really, really nice.

Except for the part where he just realized he had a massive crush on Lotor. His dumbass jealousy had been so misplaced.

And there was probably no chance in hell he’d ever get the chance to confess. It certainly didn’t look like he  _ should, _ either. It  _ looked _ like Lotor and Allura were going to have the greatest love story of the universe, and Lance was just going to have to… Move on. Yeah. He could do that.

*

He couldn’t do that.

He knew something was wrong the moment Lotor and Allura returned from Oriande.

Lotor was all too clearly  _ pretending _ to be fine. Lance recognized it, having done it himself so many times. Maybe getting picked last for the team wasn’t nearly the same thing as not getting picked to follow through on your heritage rights, but similar enough things had happened so often to Lance that he knew the hurt and pain that came with it, and the ways it was covered up. Excessive happiness for the others, of course, excusing yourself as early as possible to hide away so you could just be in your feelings for a little while, before coming back, all covered up, and ready to pretend to be fine a little while longer. 

Lance didn’t like the idea of Lotor being alone, so he followed after him after a few moments. He figured Lotor could use someone who would at least kind of get it. Earth didn’t have any of this mystical stuff as far as he knew, but being left out of parts of your culture was something he knew all too well. Again, maybe not because God Himself said so (or whatever the White Lion was), but circumstances sure had.

He knocked on Lotor’s door, hearing a soft sigh before a quiet, “come in”. 

The door wooshed open and Lance stepped inside.

“Hey, Lotor,” he said softly, watching Lotor as he stood from his position perched on his bed.

“Paladin,” he murmured, raising an eyebrow.

“Just call me Lance, okay?”

“Why are you here?” Lotor asked tiredly, sitting down again and looking every bit as exhausted as Lance figured he must feel.

“Because you just had part of your heritage taken from you for probably some bullshit reasons and that fucking sucks,” Lance said bluntly, plopping down next to Lotor.

Lotor snorted. “And how would you know?”

“Because.” Lance took a deep breath. “I’m not mixed race — at least, not by ‘has different species of parents’ definition, and definitely not by Earth’s definition, either. Uh, there’s a lot of socio-political-historical context to explain? But let’s just cut a long story short, because I can’t give you twenty years of education in five minutes. Back on Earth, there’s different ‘races’ of humans. Based on skin type, usually. There’s a loooot more going on, but, um. Keeping it simple.”

He took another deep breath, extremely aware of Lotor’s intense gaze.

“Then there’s lots of different religions, and… Okay, simple, simple. I live in Cuba. We have a different way of doing the Catholic religion than most of the white people in America. And… when my family packed us all up, and moved us to America? We lost… a lot. Of connection with our culture. Trying to go to white people’s churches was a disaster, none of us really meshed right. We were out of place, trying to change ourselves to fit in with a culture that didn’t really want us. Because we did ‘their’ religion differently, and we had different skin. It was… suffocating, not being able to be with our real people doing things the way we were comfortable with. But we had to suck up to Becky and her lot.”

He rolled his eyes and huffed. “Which isn’t the same as trying to, I dunno, convince a magical lion that you deserve to… go home, I guess, and learn who you really are, where you come from, and forge that connection to your… forgotten half? But I know what it’s like to miss that connection to a side of you most people never see.”

He heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry. It sucks. And if you wanna talk, I’m here to listen. Now that I dumped my own baggage all over you.” He finally turned to look at Lotor again, with a dumb half-smile on his face.

Lotor was still gazing at him with intensity, but it was softer, somehow. More curious and sad than angry and… with a vibe of “get the fuck out of here”. 

Lance really didn’t like the silence, but he felt as though he shouldn’t just fill it with his usual babble talk, this time.

“Thank you,” Lotor finally said quietly, “It… does indeed ‘suck’ to be rejected from my own heritage.”

Lotor inhaled sharply and Lance reflexively laid a hand on Lotor’s shoulder.

“The Lion decided I wasn’t worthy. Because I wouldn’t lay down and die for it. Sacrificing myself has never… been an option of any sort. The only way you can forge forward and make change is by staying alive. How was I to know that in order to obtain the knowledge I need, I was meant to lay down and die? You cannot save the world if you are dead.”

“Yeah, that sounds pretty bullshit,” Lance said, squeezing Lotor’s shoulder, “Plus, like. If you were raised Altean, you’d probably know the answer to the puzzle. It’s not your fault that your childhood wasn’t, like… Normal for Alteans. That’s a totally rigged system!”

A small smile tugged at the corners of Lotor’s mouth. “Indeed,” he said somewhat dryly, “Thank you again, Lance.”

Lance shivered, having not realized how good his name sounded coming from Lotor’s mouth.

“You’re welcome,” he said softly, “It’s what friends are for, right? Not your fault some ancient crusty ass lion god has no clue what the hell’s going on these days and can’t adapt with the times.”

“...Crusty ass?” Lotor blinked.

Lance snickered. “Uh, I don’t even know how to explain that one,” he admitted, “English, uh. Well, I’m not a linguist or anything, but ‘crusty’ usually refers to something so old and unmoving that it got stale and really crusty. And then, like, ‘ass’ is being used, like… as an emphasis word, in this case? If you say something  _ is _ ‘crusty ass’ it’s just, like, really extra crusty, but if you say someone  _ has _ a crusty ass, it means they don’t, uh. Wash their ass. Y’know, butt.”

Lotor snorted. “Well, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” he said, amused. “One must use curse words correctly, of course.”

“Yup,” Lance said brightly.

Lotor smiled wider, and Lance felt really proud of himself for managing to cheer Lotor up.

“You hungry?” he asked, grinning widely, “We could go get dinner.”

“I… Yes. Let’s.” Lotor stood and stretched, making Lance flinch when his back cracked and popped seven times.

“Dude, you need to stretch more,” Lance said, wrinkling his nose as he stood, “Those noises didn’t sound good.”

Lotor just laughed, and Lance felt warm.

*

“Okay, so you guys totally saw that, right?” Soba asked, grinning at her siblings long after Lance and Lotor had returned to the group smiling and laughing together.

“Yup,” Ramen chirped, “Dad definitely likes him.”

“He has the goo-goo eyes pretty bad,” Udon agreed, smirking, “Sooo… what are we going to do about this?”

“Something, that’s for sure,” Soba replied, clapping her hands together once, “We gotta come up with a plan. Dad’ll never say anything, so… Maybe we just push them to spend time together?”

“We could also talk to Lotor a lot more,” Ramen suggested, “More time we spend with him, maybe the more Dad’ll trust him and give in.”

“Oooh, that’s good.” Soba grinned, tail swishing behind her.

“What happens if they don’t say anything?” Udon asked, rubbing her chin, “I mean, we can hardly… act too upset over it? We’re not that little anymore; I don’t think that kind of manipulation would work.”

“Upset in the sad way, no, but maybe anger?”

Ramen shook his head. “No, Sobe, it’s gotta be more, like… concerned. Worried. Like, ‘Dad, what are you doing, why don’t you want to be happy? We want you to be happy, Lotor makes you happy, just kiss his face already’ kind of thing.”

Soba huffed. “Yeah, that sounds easy, but he’ll just go ‘it’s a complicated adult thing’,” she said in a mocking tone.

Udon groaned. “Guys, let’s just take it one step at a time, okay? For right now, it’s about getting them to spend time together. We’ll tackle that stuff in the future.”

“Okay,” Ramen agreed easily, “So plans for getting them to spend time together? We can’t be too obvious or they’ll figure it out and not play along.”

“Maybe Lotor would, but not Dad,” Soba snickered.

“Hey, come on, Soba!” Udon said sharply.

“ _ He’s _ the one who says he has Always Dumb and Hot Disorder,” she defended.

Ramen snickered, shaking his head. “We know ADHD doesn’t actually mean that, and it’s still kinda mean.”

Soba sighed. “Okay, so… Maybe we just… start treating Emperor Lotor like he’s one of our uncles? That might get Dad’s attention.”

Udon nodded. “That’s good. I bet we could get him to play  _ Underlook  _ with us,” she said, starting to get excited, “You think he ships Jacqueline and Gabrielle?”

“Duh, who  _ doesn’t?” _ Ramen snorted, “Jack and Gabe are perfect for each other. Just need to get Gabe back to the good guy side, is all.”

Soba chuckled. “Okay, so. Plan A, get, uh,  _ Uncle Lotor _ to play video games with us. Let’s do this, uhh, tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Ramen agreed, “It’s too late in the day now, anyway.”

“Cool. Operation Get Dad A Husband is a go,” Udon whispered, grinning.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay everyone! I've been settling into a new job and was debating on how long to actually make this chapter and kept putting it off before finally just deciding to publish it. I'll probably not be able to do weekly updates like before, but I'm hoping that pushing this chapter out will spark a new writing fierceness in me!!

Udon was voted to be the sibling to go bother Emperor Lotor and try to get him to spend time with the three teenagers and eventually lead into setting him up with their dad. With her serious attitude, they all thought it was more likely that Lotor would listen to her. So, here she was, outside the meeting room door as Lotor visited the Castle of Lions to get things organized for some strike against Sendak and continue retaking the Empire for peace. Or something like that. She didn’t really know, and was trying not to eavesdrop too much. The less she knew, the better, in case she was kidnapped or something crazy like that.

Finally the door opened and everyone poured out.

“Hey Udon,” Lance said, surprised as he noticed her, “Did you need something from me?”

She shook her head. “No, I was hoping to talk to Uncle Lotor,” she said quietly.

Lance’s brows climbed to his hairline. “Since when is he  _ Uncle _ Lotor?” he asked, bemused.

“Um.” She blushed, shrugging.

Lotor stepped up, a small, indulgent smile on his face. “It’s alright,” he assured the both of them, “We’re all familiar enough with each other to just use first names, yes?”

“Yeah,” Udon said a bit eagerly, smiling, “We’re basically family now. And you’re a lot like Uncle Keith. So.”

Lance stifled a laugh. “Oh, you have to say that to Keith’s face when he comes back from his mission,” he said to Udon with a grin, “But when I’m in the room. I need to see his expression when that happens.”

“Sure,” Udon promised, “Anyway, Uncle Lotor?”

Lance lingered for only a moment before walking away, figuring if Udon had wanted him to know, she’d’ve asked him to stay, too. It was weird, seeing her so grown up in such a short time by comparison with humans, but kind of nice to see her and the others becoming so independent. He missed when they were little and being needed so much, but it had a strange kind of relief to see them maturing so much.

Udon waited until she was sure her father was out of earshot, and then looked up at Lotor very seriously. Lotor, in turn, became more serious—probably expecting something like the talk he’d given her and her siblings a while back, she realized, wincing internally.

“Do you have a lot of free time right now?” she blurted.

Lotor raised an eyebrow slightly, but nodded.

“Would you like to come play video games with me, Ramen, and Soba?” she asked quietly, “We wanna spend more time with you. You’re really cool and helped us a lot, so…”

Lotor’s eyes widened slightly, taken aback by the offer. “I’m afraid I’ve never played any,” he said, “I don’t think I’d be very good.”

Udon shrugged. “So, we’ll teach you. It’s really fun! And you’re always bad when you start something, that’s why you practice and get better,” she said matter-of-factly. “I didn’t know how to hold a gun or a sword when Dad and Keith started teaching us how to use them, and now I can beat a level three robot on our training deck. And you don’t only start learning stuff when you’re a kid, you can always start learning new things.”

She paused, giving Lotor an even more serious look. “Unless you’re too scared.” She smirked.

Lotor gave a surprised laugh. “Oh, is that so? Well, I don’t have to respond to such a childish insult, you know,” he said, amused, “But the rest of your argument makes sense, of course. Fine, I shall come play games with you.”

Udon grinned. “Cool. Come on, our gaming room is over here,” she said, grabbing his hand and starting to emphatically lead him down the halls.

Lotor let her drag him off, wondering exactly how he was going to deal with this. He’d had a few interactions in passing, neutral or positive, and the big talk he’d given them, but still, he wasn’t sure exactly what to do, here. Typically, his interactions with anyone non-adult were very limited, and to suddenly be roped into some kind of… role model-esque relationship with three of them made him uncomfortable. This wasn’t exactly his forté. Still, he’d rather give it a shot and hope he did well rather than shut them all down. Especially if he had any hope of furthering his relationship with Lance. The blue paladin intrigued him—he had a penchant for making Lotor laugh with his unexpected jokes, now that they were on better terms. Lance’s smile was gorgeous, and Lotor wanted to do everything he could to keep it on Lance’s face. Especially when Lance got into one of his depressive funks, and the smile plastered to his face was heartbreakingly fake.

A good way to begin would be building a good relationship with Lance’s children. Not that he didn’t care for them in their own right, or that he was using them. It was simply the truth.

He blinked when he was finally pulled into the gaming room, a fourth computer desk he didn’t expect already set up for him.

“You planned this,” he noted, smirking when Ramen and Soba just grinned at him.

“That’s Dad’s,” Udon explained, “But he also has it do a guest login thingy, if we play with Uncle Hunk or something, because Uncle Hunk doesn’t need a big computer like that to himself.”

“I see. Well, let’s begin. What will you be throwing me off the deep end into?” he asked wryly, snorting when he saw Ramen look vaguely guilty and Soba simply grin deviously.

“How’d you know we wouldn’t start simple?” Ramen complained, crossing his arms as Soba pushed Lotor into the chair.

“Intuition,” he said dryly. 

“Well,  _ Underlook _ is really cool anyway. It’ll be super easy to get started learning. Just pick a character you like from the screen to start practicing,” Soba said gleefully, scooting back to her own computer.

Udon rolled her eyes. “I’ll stay here and help you for a minute until you get a grasp,” she said, dragging her chair from her desk next to Lotor.

Lotor nodded, putting on the headset. He picked the character with a sword and Udon immediately began explaining about filling out the ultimate move circle by “playing super awesomely” and the extra abilities he had. Once he could reliably hit the correct buttons, Udon left him to log into her own account and then grouped them all together to play in practice rounds together.

They played for a couple of vargas, with Lotor getting slightly better every round, and growing more competitive as well. It wasn’t something he would do often, this gaming thing, but it was incredibly fun to play as he got used to the mechanics.

Eventually, though, he had to pull out and quit. He still needed to get back to the main command ship and deal with some of the more minute details of running the empire. Delegating, mostly, but he still had to get people jump-started on projects.

“Don’t go so soon,” Soba pleaded, “We’re having so much fun, Uncle Lotor!”

Ancients, but he would not get used to that anytime soon.

“Unfortunately, the Emperor is a very busy man,” he said with a dramatic sigh, “and I am the Emperor. I hope to play again with you all sometime soon, though. It’s been fun. Really.”

Udon beamed. “Great!” she enthused, “We really like having you around, y’know.”

Lotor coughed slightly. “Well, that would add you to a very short list.”

Ramen made a face. “That list should totally be super-long,” he said, “You’re too cool.”

“Quite the compliment,” Lotor said softly, clearing his throat. “I should go. I promise to be around again soon.”

“You better,” Soba said, hands on her hips.

He stifled a laugh. “Don’t sass me too much,” he said deadpanned, “As I said, I am still the Emperor.”

“Nah,” Soba said dismissively, “You wouldn’t do too much as long as it’s not crazy. You like our dad too much.”

“Where did you get an idea like  _ that?” _ he said, shocked that these three teenagers, of all people, had somehow read him like an open book.  _ Quizzack. _

“The way you look at him, sometimes,” Udon said quietly, looking at Lotor very intensely, “Like he put the stars in the sky just for you.”

Her gaze bore into him and, despite the increasing need for him to hurry back, he felt rooted to the spot. By a damned teenager’s stare.

“Dad’s lonely,” Udon continued, “He needs someone like you, y’know. He tries to hide it, but we can tell, we’re not stupid. He’s happy we have such a big family, but we can see he still wishes we’d had two parents. Like he was never enough. And that he wants someone to love like that. We were happy only having Dad as kids, so it’s not a big deal for us like it is for him on our behalf, but it’d be cool to have a second dad. Well, mostly we were happy. But it’s not a big deal anymore now we know everything, anyway.”

“Yeah. And Dad deserves a good guy. You’re pretty good,” Ramen added, “And you already really like him. And we also really like you. I mean, in different ways, duh, but…” He trailed off with a shrug.

“We wanted to spend more time with you,” Soba admitted, “To get to know you better and convince you that our dad is totally worth your time.”

Lotor blinked.

“You are devious,” he breathed out.

“It’s working,” Soba pointed out, “You liked spending time with us. And said you’d do it more. Dad wouldn’t ever date someone who couldn’t get along with us. You do. You were there for us during a big serious thing and you just played video games with us without getting irritated. I think that’s a good test. You’re allowed to, and in fact,  _ encouraged, _ to ask our dad out on a hot date.”

“Soba,” Ramen said warningly, “You don’t need to add the ‘hot’ part. That part’s  _ definitely _ none of our business.”

Soba simply shrugged.

Udon levelled her serious gaze at Lotor again. “We’d like you to be a serious part of our lives. And Dad’s, too,” she said softly, “It’s worth a shot.”

“I’ll take this under consideration,” Lotor managed to say, thankful for his autopilot finally kicking in. “For now, I have things to attend to. Farewell.” He promptly spun on his heel and strode out of the room quickly.

“I think that went well,” Soba announced after a few moments.

Ramen facepalmed. “I think we scared him off,” he grumbled, “We came on too strong too fast, for sure. We probably just ruined everything.”

“I don’t think so,” Udon said quietly. “I’ll bet you twenty GAC he asks Dad out within the movement.”

“Deal,” Ramen said morosely. The money wouldn’t make him feel much better if they really had messed things up, though.

*

Lotor wasn’t quite sure what to do with the information he’d been given. It was clear to him there was no malice in the intentions of Lance’s children, but they still could have been lying in a misguided attempt to help their father be happy. And yet, the more he turned it over in his mind, the more he yearned to know the truth — from Lance’s lips — even as the idea scared him. Putting his heart out there to be seen wasn’t a choice that Lotor entertained lightly. Usually, it was completely off the table, unquestioned to be a “no”. Vulnerability with people is how people can betray him, hurt him, kill him. He always had to be careful how much of his true face he showed, even with allies, in the event that someone tempted them the right amount of money, or the right blackmail, or the right other miscellaneous motivations to stab Lotor in the back.

Being with Voltron, watching them trust each other in such carefree ways, had at first made him believe they were all extremely naive. The longer time went on with them, however, made him realize the ways everyone carefully guarded each other. The seven people who lived on the castle who were constantly involved in the fighting were, like him, overthinking and ready for a spy of any kind to betray them. The trust that they’d given him and his generals to be aboard the castle had been extremely cautious, he’d long since realized. It had been a long time since he’d underestimated potential enemies like that, but even with all his experience, it seemed, arrogance could still slip in here and there.

The more time he spent here, the more he could see the nuances in their interactions, even when Keith was absent for BoM missions. Lance, he studied especially. After the Voltron Show performances, well. Lotor couldn’t deny he’d had a special interest in Lance’s… well. He wasn’t immune to carnal desires. And the fire in Lance’s eyes when he trained and fought, the burning passion he held to fight for what he believed in, what was right, was so intense it was nearly blinding. And… how so, so easily Lance switched from being the hardened soldier on the battlefield to being the soft, goofy person he was, telling jokes to ease everyone on his team, and reciting valiant speeches to rally them, boost their confidences, and lift them up to do the jobs that needed doing.

Lance might have said Allura was the heart of Voltron, and perhaps she really was, but in Lotor’s opinion, they were all their own versions of the heart. Lotor’s observations were that Lance was just the louder one. The one that set you at ease pre-battle, setting aside jitters in place of joy. Allura set alight the fire in their hearts mid-battle, telling everyone to trust themselves that they could go on. Hunk was another facet; a post-battle comfort with foods and drinks that would soothe the body while he listened. Shiro was there at their training, encouraging everyone and helping them rise up to the best they could be, a good leader to follow into battle. Coran… Lotor would say he was the sort of father figure Lotor had always wanted as a child. Still wanted, if he was honest with himself (and if he could trust no one, at the least, he should be honest with himself). He was, both figuratively and actually, the man there to help the team off the ground, help with injuries, and… be paternal in a way that Lotor just couldn’t put into words.

Pidge and Keith were the two Lotor couldn’t really pin down, but he knew they all played big roles in each other’s lives. Voltron simply couldn’t work as well as it did without them all together. If he did try to put it into words… Keith never quit. Even when he and everyone else was on their last, exhausted leg, he could manage to keep going and encourage everyone to go, as well. He persevered through everything, even when he messed up again and again, especially navigating the social aspects of being with the team. He also was very protective over the entire team, almost to a fault, taking too much weight on his shoulders. (Lotor saw the same in Shiro, too.) Keith, as Lotor already knew, was prepared to sacrifice himself to save everyone.

Pidge, on the other hand… As he turned it over in his mind more, he really couldn’t pin her down for sure. He’d managed to come up with something for Keith, as he sat here, stirring mostly-likely-cold-now tea, but Pidge remained an enigma. She didn’t really seem to interact with the others in that kind of way. She was, interestingly, very good at insulting everyone in a way that made them laugh, but what her role really was beyond that, he couldn’t exactly define.

Lotor sighed, tapping the spoon on the edge of the cup and finally taking a sip of the tea. His lip screwed up slightly in disgust and he put it in the reheater for a few ticks to actually get to enjoy it this time around. Hopefully.

_ Lance _ . He sipped his tea again, this time with a grateful sigh as it was the correct temperature. Lance had consumed a lot of his thoughts for a long time, now. He was stubborn, and strong, and witty. Not to mention his long legs. Lotor shuddered slightly just thinking about them. Especially when Lance decided to wander around in shorts for the day. Lance’s bright laugh and kind eyes, soft and eager to listen and help when it came to solving problems, and the hard, cold-as-ice look when he was staring down the barrel of his gun to take out enemies, the determined, thin line his lips became with just the hint of a growl behind them.

In short, everything about Lance? Lotor craved it. He always wanted more. He finished his tea and sighed deeply. What the hell was he supposed to do now? With this revelation…

He inhaled slowly. Advice. He needed advice from someone. Hunk was Lance’s best friend and would likely know best what would work, but Hunk was Lance’s  _ best friend, _ which could mean that Hunk would hear this and become very protective of Lance and tell Lotor things that would make him mess up. He didn’t believe that Hunk would do such a thing, but… Hunk hid a ferocity behind his “scaredy-cat” surface.

Shiro seemed like a safe bet. He and Lance also seemed fairly close, and Shiro and himself also had a very good relationship… After everything Shiro had done for Lotor, trusting and believing in him and going against his own team to help, he was certain Shiro would help with this. Even if it was to be brutally honest and say that Lance wouldn’t go for Lotor at all.

Decision made, he finally left the room he’d been sitting in for far too long to think, in search of Shiro.


End file.
